Being the Change I Wish to See

There is good news this week on the same-sex marriage front. New Hampshire is the 6th state to legalize gay marriage. The NH legislation was signed into law on June 3, 2009.

The 6 states that perform legal same-sex marriages are:

• Massachusetts
• Connecticut
• Iowa
• Vermont (as of 9/1/2009)
• Maine (as of 9/14/2009
• New Hampshire (as of 1/1/2010)

Washington D.C. and New York recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and countries.

California still recognizes the 18,000 or so same-sex marriages performed in that state during the period it was legal.

Other countries that perform legal same-sex marriages are:

• Belgium
• Canada
• Netherlands
• Norway
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden

Same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue because a specific group has been singled out for discrimination based on the genders of each of the couple desiring to marry legally. Until same-sex couples can marry just as opposite-sex couples can now, and those marriages are nationally recognized, gay and lesbian civil rights are being violated based on gender discrimination, due process of law and equal protection under the law.

As with all civil rights issues, the United States is progressive in some areas and backward in others, but eventually, equal rights are extended to everyone.

In the meantime, many gay and lesbian rights groups and the ACLU are fighting state-by-state to legalize gay marriage. When enough states have legal same-sex marriage, a federal case can be brought before the U.S. Supreme Court to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, and extend equal protection under the law to marry another consenting adult to all American citizens.

Benefits of legal same-sex marriage:

• Long-term relationship stability
• Family stability
• All the rights and responsibilities of marriage (there are over 1000)
• Stable two-parent families for children
• Children are protected from loss of one parent at the whim of the other, the whims of state law changes, or the whim of states to deny child custody and adoption to LGBT parents. Should same-sex parents divorce, the children will have all the protections of children of hetero divorced parents.
• Separation of church and state is upheld
• Equal protection and due process under the law are preserved

What a lot of people don’t realize is children are deeply, negatively affected by their same-sex parents not being legally allowed to get married. If you didn’t know, many gay and lesbian couples have children, whether from previous heterosexual marriages or partnerships, artificial insemination or adoption. These children deserve the same protections as children of heterosexual parents.

Cons of legal same-sex marriage:

• None

Some very vocal people don’t like it and don’t believe LGBT people should have the same rights heterosexuals have.This position doesn’t hold legal or moral water, and it continues to allow the church to be blurred with the state, and the religious predilections of some to be imposed on a minority group.

The same arguments being used against the LGBT population on marriage are very similar to the arguments used to deny African Americans equal rights (changed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964) and for interracial couples to legally marry (legalized everywhere in 1967 in the U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v Virginia).

Those opposing same-sex marriage are going to quickly find themselves on the wrong side of history. The tide is turning rapidly toward equal rights for LGBT Americans. Five years ago only one state, Massachusetts, legalized gay marriage. It has taken only months for marriage rights to be legalized in 5 more states. Same-sex marriage rights were taken away in California or we would have 7 states with legal same-sex marriage today.

California will recover its gay marriage rights sooner rather than later because they face a legal conundrum that all the legal marriages of same-sex couples are still recognized. The legal argument becomes if several thousand same-sex couples were married in the state and the state still recognizes those marriages, how can they justify they are treating everyone equally under the law by denying marriage to more same-sex couples?

They can’t, and that is the argument that will have to go back to court or back onto a ballot. Prop 8 may have amended the CA constitution, but due process and equal protection under the law are violated by the amendment and the amendment will have to be reversed because of that fact. Many states that passed Constitutional Amendments of the same type will eventually have them overturned by due process and equal protection law suits or by means of the ballot.

I don’t think Proposition 8 would pass today if another election were held, although the vote would still be close. In a few years, the number of people who would vote against Prop 8 will increase dramatically as more states legalize same-sex marriage and the age of the population becomes slightly younger.

What those of us who support same-sex marriage rights must do is make sure we encourage young voters with similar views to vote. We must also make our views known to the people we know and to the extent possible, to our wider communities. We must be activists and advocates of our cause. Sitting on the sidelines never changed anything.

What everyone needs to understand, pro or con, is that equal protection under the law is for all Americans, and the right to marry is a protected right.

If you are against legal same-sex marriage, no one is asking you to marry someone of the same gender. No one is asking your church to be required to perform weddings. No one is asking you to like it or agree with it. The law demands, however, that you tolerate it in our society, just like interracial marriages and equal rights for African Americans and other minorities had to be and still have to be tolerated.

Don’t start on the “next people will want to marry children or their pets” argument. It’s ludicrous because children and pets cannot enter into legal contracts. Legal marriage is a legal contract and must be entered into by people of the age of majority who are legally capable of signing a contract.

Whether or not you support the right of same-sex couples to marry legally, I hope you will leave your thoughts in the comments in a civil tone which debates the issue. Hateful speech and attacks will be deleted.

Technorati Tags: being the change i wish to see, due process, equal protection under the law, gay marriage, LGBT civil rights

written by joubess \\ tags: being the change i wish to see, due process, equal protection under the law, gay marriage, LGBT civil rights

Update May 27, 2009: Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenback of the U.S. Air Force is being discharged under don’t ask don’t tell. He is a highly decorated combat pilot with 18 years of service. Somewhere around $25 million has been spent on training him for his position. Losing him because he is gay is the stupidest thing I can think of.

He is fighting his discharge, and there is hope because a court could rule that the military must prove his conduct is a disruption to good order and discipline within his unit. Another officer just won on appeal and will remain in the military even though she is now known to be a lesbian.
____________________________________________________
Original post begins here:

The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell military policy on sexual orientation must end. Many other countries have openly gay and lesbian members serving and have experienced no problems with it.

We are about to lose 1st Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate, Iraq veteran, an Arabic linguist and founding member of the gay and lesbian group of West Point graduates, Knights Out. We are about to lose 2nd Lt. Sandy Zhao after she came out to her chain of command in January 2009. She wrote to President Obama and he responded personally to her in favor of repealing DADT.

The following videos cover the subject much better than I can describe the story to you:

Lt. Choi is an Arabic linguist, not an Arab linguist. CNN needs to fix that.

If I recall correctly, a similar argument was used before women were allowed to serve unsegregated and in combat jobs in our military. Having women on the battlefield, it was argued, would damage unit cohesion and discipline. We know that isn’t true and women have served in combat positions for at least 2 decades now.

This is a useless and discriminatory law that needs to be repealed. I have to agree to a point with Rep. Joe Sestak that the repeal needs to be done by due process in Congress. He’s right that the past administration has shown us what ignoring the law can do to our country. The difference is the Bush administration did it for the wrong reasons. Continuing to uphold a clearly discriminatory law that violates equal protection under the law, the most basic premise of our legal system. It is more wrong and more damaging to us as a country than an executive order to extend equal protection for gays to serve in the military while the law is changed would be. The law here is clearly wrong.

Take Action

What we can do is write, email or call our Representatives in the House to sign on to this bill as co-sponsors. If they don’t wish to be co-sponsors, we must insist they support and vote for the bill. We need to do the same with our Senators. The more pressure we the constituents put on our elected officials, the more likely it will be that DADT will be repealed this year, and veterans such as Lt. Choi and Lt. Zhao can be reinstated along with the thousands of others who have been wrongfully discharged but still wish to serve.

We can also support Knights Out directly. They have a great website where you can donate, take action and help repeal DADT. You can also become an Ally of Knights Out. Click on the Join Knights Out link in the left sidebar and sign your name if you wish.

In the meantime, I will keep you posted on any progress made on DADT, and on Lts. Choi and Zhao. Lt. Choi plans to fight his dismissal and hopefully, because the wheels of military law move as slowly as the rest of government, the law may be changed before he has exhausted every avenue open to him.

Technorati Tags: being the change i wish to see, CNN, Dan Choi, don't ask don't tell policy, gay lesbian bisexual transgender in the military, Knights Out, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, U.S. military

written by joubess \\ tags: being the change i wish to see, CNN, Dan Choi, don't ask don't tell policy, gay lesbian bisexual transgender in the military, Knights Out, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, U.S. military