Setbacks Continue at State and Local Levels
Last year, 13 local governments passed laws
banning job discrimination based on sexual orientation, bringing the
nationwide total to 240. In November, in all five cities and towns with
antigay referenda on their ballots, our side won. And at year’s end, after
some three decades of delay, the New York state legislature finally passed a
gay rights measure. But while the overall trend of greater acceptance of gay
people continues, there are still ongoing efforts on the part of homophobes,
mainly in the religious right, to stop some pro-gay measures and repeal
others previously enacted.
There are several reasons for the renewed
efforts of social conservatives to curb gay legislative successes. One is
that the financial crises affecting most state governments have created
pressure for budget cuts, which in turn make gay-related programs tempting
targets for those who don’t like us anyway. The second is that many
legislative bodies are now under GOP control, or, in some cases, new
Republican governors are in charge. This changes the political equation, and
in those states where social conservatives have a lot of clout in the GOP,
pro-gay policies and proposals face stronger opposition than before.
Traditionally progressive Minnesota is a case
in point. Newly inaugurated Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), confronting serious
revenue problems, initially made significant cuts in the state’s HIV
prevention programs. Subsequently, state health officials concerned about
the cuts worked with state finance officials and the governor’s office to
find alternative funding to keep the programs—including an AIDS
hotline—up and running.
In addition, Speaker of the House Steve
Sviggum (R) has introduced a bill that would only approve Minnesota’s
contract with the state employees union if the domestic partner health
benefits provision is removed. The union must acquiesce, or it will be
forced to renegotiate its contract in tough economic times. Lesbian state
Rep. Karen Clark (D) told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the bill was
sure to pass the GOP-controlled lower house. The bill is also likely to pass
the Senate, where the Democratic majority has gotten slimmer and contains a
few Democrats unsympathetic to gay concerns. Thus, it appears that the
state’s domestic partnership policies for state employees may be doomed
for the time being. An estimated 70 to 85 gay and lesbian employees have
registered for the benefits since they became available in 2001. Eliminating
this provision is likely to save the cash-starved state only some $200,000,
which suggests that homophobia, not fiscal responsibility, is behind the
move.
Potentially more serious is the effort by
five Republican lawmakers to repeal the state’s civil rights protections
for gay people, enacted in 1993. Gov. Pawlenty has said he would not sign
such a bill, but indicated he might favor eliminating the current
protections for transgender people, on the grounds that people dressing as
men one day, women the next, are—he says—causing problems. This
compromise would appease social conservatives, but save gay rights at the
expense of transgender people, the most vulnerable segment of the larger
LGBT community.
Summing up the hostile events in usually
liberal Minnesota, one longtime Minneapolis activist says, “We’ve got a
real struggle on our hands.”
Gay rights are also facing rough treatment in
a number of Southern jurisdictions. In Virginia, a legislative committee
defeated a bill—introduced by Republican Delegate James H. Dillard II,
from more moderate Northern Virginia—that would have allowed private
businesses to provide health insurance coverage for domestic partners,
including those in same-sex relationships (currently prohibited by state law
for all but self-insured companies). Another committee turned down a bill
that would have added sexual orientation to the state’s hate crimes law.
And a subcommittee on local affairs voted down a measure that would have
given the human rights commission of the Washington, D.C., suburb of Fairfax
County the authority to investigate discrimination complaints based on
sexual orientation.
In Texas, the legislature is currently
considering a bill that would bar gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from
serving as foster parents. The legislature, now under GOP control for the
first time in more than a century, is also considering a measure that would
ban not only recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages, but also civil
unions from other states.
In February, the Metropolitan Council of
Nashville halted consideration of a measure that would have made it illegal
to discriminate against gays in employment and housing. The measure was
torpedoed by the Southern Baptists, who threatened to cancel their national
convention in the city in 2005 if the measure passed. After the council
voted 20 to 17 to postpone a vote on the measure, the sponsors withdrew the
bill.
Even under these negative circumstances,
however, gay activists and their allies are pushing forward. In Virginia,
proponents of domestic partnership legislation plan to reintroduce the
measure at a later date. In Nashville, those favoring a gay-inclusive
nondiscrimination policy plan to amend the measure to exclude religious
organizations and reintroduce it at a later date.
On an even brighter side, in trendsetting
California, the state Assembly’s newly formed Gay and Lesbian
Caucus—five members strong—announced it will push a four-point program
to improve the lives of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people
in the Golden State.
Their
proposals would expand the state’s domestic partner laws to incorporate
more of the rights and benefits of married couples, extend domestic partner
requirements to contractors doing business with the state, include
transgender people in state discrimination laws, and ban sexual orientation
discrimination in the state’s foster children program.
Hastings Wyman publishes Southern Political Report, a
nonpartisan biweekly political newsletter. He may be reached in care of
Letters from CAMP Rehoboth or at
HWymanSPR@aol.com.
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