Last week’s transgender hearing shows great progress, but much work lies ahead.
Pride should continue into July, when the gay story becomes part of the American story.
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JOE SOLMONESE
Friday, May 19, 2006
AMID INTENSE DISSATISFACTION with the war in Iraq, soaring oil prices and a spiraling federal deficit, the president’s political operatives and Senate leaders are once again throwing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans and the U.S. Constitution into the crossfire.
That’s right, the Federal Marriage Amendment, now renamed the “Marriage Protection Amendment,” is being resurrected.
But let’s call it what it is: the marriage discrimination amendment. The Constitution was written to protect all Americans. This amendment would break the very foundation of the Constitution by forever denying fairness and equality to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans and our families.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) promised a vote on the marriage discrimination amendment in early June. And that promise was echoed by the Senate’s most extreme anti-gay leader, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).
On the House side, a vote is expected as soon as July. You can bet your bottom dollar that if it doesn’t happen before the summer is over, it will happen before the election in November.
THE OTHER SIDE is already ginning up their base. Last week, the American Family Association launched a campaign to deluge the Senate with more than 1 million letters supporting the amendment.
The Center for Moral Clarity — I’ll allow you to take a moment to pick yourself up off the floor from laughter at the name — has released a new online video complete with a warning from God about the importance of this vote.
The Human Rights Campaign is hard at work countering the forces on the far right. We’re working in a broad-based coalition of GLBT, religious and civil liberties groups on an aggressive campaign heading into the vote.
We’ll be briefing and lobbying Congress on an almost daily basis. We’ll be engaging grass-roots leaders to be sure they make opposition known with their senators. We’re turning out religious, conservative and business voices to ensure nobody has a stranglehold on this fight.
BUT WE NEED you to join us.
In 2004, fair-minded Americans rose up in a groundswell of opposition. Defeating the amendment wasn’t the sole result of conversations in the halls of Congress.
It was because of people like Ann Hudson, a retired nurse in Ohio and a registered Republican. In 2004, she had a 46-year marriage and a lesbian daughter and Ann saw the amendment for what it was: a divisive and discriminatory attempt to distract voters from the problems at hand.
She did more than that though; she flew to Washington and visited with her members of Congress. She talked about it to her neighbors and spoke publicly at media events to make her voice heard.
Now you may not be one for a trip to Capitol Hill or a sound bite on the 5 o’clock news. But you can still contact members of Congress. And you can write a letter to regional newspaper without ever worrying about how you look on camera.
This is a campaign that needs to be waged with friends and family by our side. And it needs to be waged today. Make sure they know you need their support — and you need it now.
This isn’t about giving rights; it’s about taking them away — at all costs, no matter who ends up being caught in the crossfire.
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