Jan 26, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

With amendments banning same-sex marriage already approved in nearly all of the nation’s conservative-dominated “red states,” gay activists there are hoping to turn the tide in 2007 by pushing hard for pro-gay legislation in other areas.

In states like Texas, Iowa and the Carolinas, activists hope to advance bills that ban job discrimination against gays and transgender people. Activists in states such as Idaho and South Dakota plan to lobby their legislatures for bills to combat anti-gay hate crimes.

But if what happened in the past three years is a predictor of what may happen in 2007, red state activists may once again find themselves bogged down in fending off a flurry of anti-gay bills.

“It’s just been exhausting for these folks,” said Carrie Evans, coordinator for state legislative activity for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay civil rights group. “They have not had a chance to breathe on pro-gay bills because so much of their time is used on fighting anti-gay bills.”

Evans said many of the anti-gay bills have been aimed at gay parents and call for barring gays from adopting, becoming foster parents, or obtaining visitation or child custody rights. It’s too soon to tell if lawmakers will introduce some or all of these bills this year because the legislative sessions haven’t begun in all states.

Arkansas recently passed a law banning gays from becoming foster parents, which includes language barring the state from recognizing gays who received foster parent status from another state. A court overturned the law, but gay rights opponents in the legislature are expected to introduce another version of the law this year with the hope of getting around the court ruling.

In New Mexico and Ohio, where some consider the states to be transforming from red to more progressive “blue,” activists are hoping to move forward with gay-supportive legislation. With the support of Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, who recently announced he is running for president, the New Mexico legislature recently passed legislation banning discrimination against gays and transgender people. Activists in Ohio plan to push this year for a similar bill.

Gay groups in Texas and Iowa also placed similar legislation on their agenda for this year. Paul Scott, executive director of Equality Texas, said a gay-supportive legislator has already introduced an anti-discrimination measure, and other supportive lawmakers introduced bills to ban sexual orientation discrimination in the insurance industry and in educational institutions.

Scott said his group is hopeful that Democratic gains in the Texas Legislature in the 2006 election will discourage hostile lawmakers from introducing the type of anti-gay bills that had been dropped into the legislative hopper last year. Among them was a bill seeking to ban gay adoptions.

“As far as I know, no anti-gay bills have been introduced so far this year,” Scott said.

While gay activists in Alaska have yet to form a statewide legislative advocacy group, the state’s ACLU chapter has been credited with bringing about domestic partner benefits for state employees as of Jan. 1. With prospects for securing any gay rights legislation through the legislature deemed hopeless, the ACLU filed suit under the Alaska Constitution’s equal protection clause on grounds that the same employee benefits given to married spouses must also be given to same-sex partners. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in favor of the ACLU’s position, drawing expressions of outrage by former Gov. Frank Murkowski.

Last year, Murkowski introduced a state constitutional amendment to overturn the court ruling. In an action viewed as a victory for gay rights, the legislature voted down the amendment. Before losing his re-election bid last year in a Republican primary, Murkowski persuaded the legislature to approve an advisory referendum on the question of same-sex benefits for state employees, which is scheduled to come before the voters later this year. The measure, which is expected to pass, would have no legal authority to stop the benefits program for same-sex partners of state employees.

But according to Mike Macleod-Ball, executive director of the Alaska ACLU chapter, the intent of the ballot measure is to pressure the legislature to revisit the constitutional amendment late this year or next year.

In yet another development viewed as a victory for gays, the state’s new governor, Republican Sarah Palin, vetoed a bill pushed through by anti-gay legislators that called for stopping the same-sex benefits from being issued, in defiance of the state Supreme Court ruling.

“She said she opposes the benefits in principle,” said Macleod-Ball.