WHO WANTS GAY MARRIAGE? Chris Crain

[On the other hand, this is an editorial in the Washington Blade for SSM, here, excerpts below. ]

"[A]ny leader of any gay rights organization who is not prepared to throw the bulk of their efforts right now into the fight for marriage is squandering resources and doesn’t deserve the position. That’s right; if they're not ready to make their top priority the freedom to marry, then they ought to resign today.

Impractical? How do you figure?

Consider for a moment how many gay Americans you know who have actually suffered from discrimination in the workplace? How many gay couples do you know who have been turned down from buying a house or renting an apartment because of their sexual orientation? How many were ever denied a room at a hotel or a seat in a restaurant because of homophobia?

How many people do you know who've been the victim of a hate crime where the perpetrator has gone unpunished?

Those people are out there, of course, and their stories are tragic.

Now multiply that number by 10 — or even 100, depending upon how broad your social circle is — and you've probably still not counted the number of gay people you know who've been discriminated against by this country's heterosexual-only marriage laws.

Between 90 and 95 percent of Americans get married at some point during their lives. If you carve out the homosexuals who can't get married (acknowledging that some of them were in heterosexual marriages before coming out of the closet) and that means that something approaching 100 percent of the people in this country who can legally say, "I do," in fact do.

The point is that no form of discrimination is more pervasive, or strikes more at the heart of being gay, than denying us the freedom to marry.

This isn't about protecting us from discrimination that might happen in the private sector. This is discrimination, perpetrated by our own government.

Once the government got into the business of issuing civil marriage certificates, and doling out (at last count) some 1,049 benefits and rights as a result of that piece of paper, there is no justification for slamming the door on committed same-sex couples.

As a result, the polls and politicians won't decide marriage, at least not initially. The courts will, and soon — not only in Canada but very soon in Massachusetts and New Jersey.

Early signs of that happening are mixed. Various gay groups are meeting in semi-secret "summits" to plan strategy, and hopefully from that will adopt highly visible and courageous campaigns to rally the people to accept civil marriage for gays.

Cutesy focus group strategies won’t work here. Neither will the type of in-fighting and turf battles that all too often plague our movement. Expect any such small-mindedness to be exposed on these pages.

We need rallies; we need marches; we need TV advertisements; we need speeches; we need pressure on "gay-friendly" politicians.

This is the big one: The fight we can and should win, and the one that really matters."

posted by maggie at 4:13 PM VOTE

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