[Peace] Homo Hatred, Rising Intolerance and Why You Should Care: What the Election of 2004 Tells Us

Fri Nov 19 09:36:35 CST 2004

Homo Hatred, Rising Intolerance and Why You Should Care: What the Election of 2004 Tells Us

By Kimberlie Kranich

Enough voters in the 2004 election were more afraid of homosexuals than they were afraid of losing their health insurance, losing their job, losing their social security and losing their son or daughter to war.  That’s crazy and this type of herd thinking and ignorance frightens me!  

I don’t know who is more harmful to me as a queer person.  The millions of voters in 11 states who voted for and passed anti-gay amendments to their state constitutions, the people who blame homosexuals for Bush’s win because of the gains queer folks have made in the past 40 years or the Democrats who continue to shrink and cower in silence in the face of a Republican hijack of so-called “moral values.”  These same Democrats claim that these anti-gay ballot initiatives were all just an election ploy to get Bush into office. Balderdash!

All three of these groups consist of people who, through malice, hatred, deception, fear and ignorance are part of this nation’s war against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (lgbt) people.  If you don't know this you are asleep.  

Before you know it your health insurance will be gone, your son or daughter will be drafted into the military or killed in a war, your social security pension will have been taken over by private corporations, and lgbt people will still be here!  Or will we be back in the closet where they want us?

You should all be concerned and alarmed.  The Right wants you to relegate lgbt people (or yourself if you are queer) to second-class citizen status based on irrational fear, ignorance and hatred (or self-hatred) while they take away the above rights for the working poor and middle class regardless of sexual orientation and gender expression. 

And what of queer people who voted for Bush?  Up to one million, or an estimated 23%, voted for Bush according to a national exit poll conducted by the Associated Press. 
 (source: http://www.nyblade.com/2004/11-12/news/national/explain.cfm). 

Wake up!  Our very principals of equality as a nation and the rights of all citizens are at stake.  After they come for me, they will come for you.  What can you do about it?  Plenty. Read on.  I promise to give you a list of things you can do after I make my case.

Were Those Ballot Initiatives Really Just An Election Ploy?  Only if LGBT People Don’t Count

At a speech at Northwestern University on November 11, Howard Dean blasted George Bush for using homophobia, sexism and racism in the election.  He claimed that the 11 anti-gay ballot initiatives "had only one effect, which is to appeal to homophobia and fear and gay-baiting in order to win a presidential election.”  Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/111404U.shtml

What an insult to lgbt people!  This analysis is dishonest, dangerous and just plain wrong.   We just lost the right to marry in all 11 states and the right to have civil unions in eight of those states.  I thought most Americans were for civil unions, didn’t you?  I was never for civil unions. Separate but equal is never equal.  Full civil marriage rights is what we deserve and it is what we must demand and are demanding. 

These anti-gay ballot initiatives weren’t an election ploy.  Just ask anyone from the Alliance For Marriage, the Southern Baptist Convention, The Moral Majority, The 700 Club, Focus on the Family and hundreds of other groups and their right wing Christian followers.  They have been working hard for decades to make sure lgbt people can NEVER marry or have any form of legal protection for their same-sex relationships or for their families. They want to strip us of all of our civil rights. 

How could those anti-gay anti-family ballot initiates have passed when national exit polls purportedly claimed that more than 60 percent of voters said they support either civil unions or civil marriage for same-sex couples?  Perhaps they passed because a full 37% of voters polled on Nov. 2, 2004 said they are against ANY form of legal recognition for same-sex couples. 

The Real Story of What LGBT People Lost on Nov. 2 is Not Being Told

Did you know that in a single night, voters in eight states banned all statewide legal protections for same-sex couples and their families, including marriage rights and civil unions and laid the groundwork for stripping lgbt people of employer-granted domestic partnerships and other benefits taken for granted by heterosexual couples?

How did this happen?  Through ballot initiatives that amended state constitutions. Voters got hundreds of thousands of signatures in each state.  That’s how they got the issue on the ballot. People didn’t just put this on the ballot to get voters to come to the polls to vote for Bush, they did it because they HATE lgbt people.

Look at the text of the state constitutional amendments that voters passed in Ohio, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah. (source: http://www.lathefamily.org/warren3/equalitymap/archives/001124.shtml)

Here's just one example of that text which is surprisingly similar in all eight states. Voters in Ohio amended their state Constitution to say:  "Only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this state and its political subdivisions.  This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage." 

Although the above language is gender neutral and applies to unmarried heterosexual couples too, since heterosexuals can marry each other in all 50 states, the law effectively bans ALL statewide legal protections for same-sex couples in these eight states.  The Georgia amendment that voters passed specifically states same-sex couples only. 

But these amendment changes are far more reaching than banning civil marriage rights and for same-sex couples and other protections similar to marriage but not equal to marriage such as civil unions.

These state constitutional amendments endanger employer-provided domestic partner benefits, joint and second-parent adoptions, recognition of same-sex couples' legal contracts, health care decision-making proxies and any policy or document that recognizes the existence of a same-sex partnership and family. 

Emboldened by overwhelming wins in the above 11 states, homo haters in Idaho, Florida and Texas have vowed that they will add similar referendums to voters’ ballots in the 2006 elections to ban marriage equality in their state Constitutions as well as in Washington, D.C.

Why Aren’t Our National LGBT Organizations Sounding the Alarm Bells Over This Unprecedented Stripping Away of Rights?

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lgbt organization, in their election wrap up, makes no mention of these state bans on protecting the rights of same-sex couples on their website (www.hrc.org).  They should be sounding alarm bells! 

Instead, HRC correctly notes only part of the truth: voters in 11 states (the eight states mentioned above plus Oregon, Mississippi and Montana) passed laws banning same-sex marriage. The HRC dismisses the seriousness of what was done by noting that “same-sex marriage was already illegal in those states, and there was no attempt in the gay community to legalize it.” 

This is only part of the story.  What HRC doesn’t say is that constitutional amendments are much more serious than state laws. And the second part of these constitutional amendments ban the enactment of state-wide protections for same-sex couples and their families. Only civil marriage can protect same-sex couples and their children.  All other legal documents drawn up by same-sex couples can be challenged and there are many cases in which they have been challenged and the same-sex couple lost. 

A Constitutional Amendment to Deny Protections for Same-Sex Couples and Families is Gaining Momentum

Can an amendment to the US Constitution narrowly defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman be far off? Am I just being provocative?  Hardly!  Do the math.  

The most common way to amend the US Constitution, and the only way it has been done so far, is for a bill to pass both the US House and the US Senate by a two-thirds majority in each.  That’s 290 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate. 

The Republicans need 218 members to control the House. They gained three seats in 2004 and will have 231 members in the next session of Congress compared to 200 Democrats and one independent. Three races are still undecided.  In the Senate, Republicans gained three seats and will have a 55-member majority in the next Congress compared to 44 Democrats and one independent.

How difficult will it be to get 59 House Democrats and 6 Senate Democrats to vote for the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage?  Do not dismiss the idea.  I’m not going to wait around to find out.  I’m in direct contact with my Congress people over this issue.  I hope you are too.

Once such a gay-hateful bill has passed both houses, it goes on to the states.  Three-fourths of the states or 38 states must approve the same bill.

After the November election, the number of states amending their constitutions to ban marriage equality for same-sex couples more than doubled to 13 states up from six prior to the election.  That’s more than one-third of the number of states needed to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage forever. Count on those state to ratify an amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the US Constitution.

Gays Are Pushing Marriage Too Fast, Blame Them for Bush’s Win! 

After the election, California Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein said, “That whole issue [gay marriage] has been too much, too fast, too soon. People aren’t ready for it.”

The issue of marriage equality didn’t just appear in 2004.  Same-sex couples, glbt people and our allies have been fighting for marriage equality in an organized legal way since the early 1990s. 

As lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people come out of the closet, many want to form lasting and committed partnerships and many do marry without benefit of legal civil marriage and so they have none of the legal protections or responsibilities of civil marriage.

Banning legal recognition and protection of same-sex relationships is a continuation of an on-going legal assault against homosexuals.  We live this legal assault amidst daily threats of violence and actual violence against us . Comments like Feinstein’s make it all the worse as gains made in the 1970s and 1990s are rapidly being challenged and dismantled while hate crimes against lgbt people are on the rise. 

Despite increased visibility of lgbt people (thanks to courageous lgbt people), the striking down of so-called sodomy laws by the United States Supreme Court, the  right for same-sex couples to enter into civil legal marriage in MA and the right to enter into civil unions in Vermont, there is still NO federal law banning discrimination against lbgt people in employment.. Workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has no federal legal remedy.  And, in 36 states, it is legal to fire someone based on their sexual orientation. In 46 states, it is legal to do so based on gender identity.  The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) has floundered for years in the US House and Senate. 

In other words, in the vast majority of states, including Illinois, you can be fired or not hired just because you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or  transgender. 

The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) passed in 1996 under President Clinton defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.  It also stated that no state shall be forced to recognize the same-sex marriage of any other state. 

I am concerned about all of the above.  How about you?  We need to stop the barrage of hatred and the stripping of rights for lgbt people while simultaneously working for peace, for good jobs, for healthcare for all.  I'm a lesbian and I can't afford not to. 
What You Can Do
Just about anything you can think of will be better than doing nothing at all, but here are a few suggestions.

If you live in Champaign-Urbana or the surrounding area, join the 85% Coalition. We are a direct action grassroots group of residents demanding civil rights for lgbt people in Illinois.  One of our projects is CU at the Altar which strives to legalize marriage of same-sex couples in Illinois.  We have partnered with Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Illinois to educate people about the differences between civil unions and civil marriage.  We specifically reach out to people who are neutral or undecided on the issue, including people of faith.  We don’t bother with homo haters. We welcome allies who’d like to help us. 

Local elections are coming next February (primary).  All of the members of the Urbana City Council and Urbana and Champaign School Board are up for re-election and all of the district seats on Champaign City Council are up for re-election. Help us elect progressive candidates to them. You can be sure right wingers will be emboldened by Bush’s win and will try to take over local government as well.

Take the Voting Plus One Pledge which consists of voting in February plus one other thing:  registering someone else to vote, giving some a ride to the polls on election day, working for a candidate who supports you.

Contact me at:  kakranich at yahoo.com for more information about any of the above.

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