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| Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), like several of her competitors in the presidential race, backs civil unions for gay couples, but has so far failed to address the question of how to extend the hundreds of federal rights of marriage to those couples. (Photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP) |
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO J COMMENTS
 
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having federal recognition of civil unions as a first step could make a big difference in the lives of gay and lesbian couples, who may not see the reality of marriage for a decade or longer.
“The first step would be to have the federal government defer to the states in deciding whether civil unions or domestic partnership laws passed by those states should be recognized for federal purposes,” he said. A new federal law would be needed to bring that about, he said.
“If you really support federalism, and that’s something our Republican friends say is important to them, then you should support this,” Agrast said. “If a state says this is how we define these relationships, the federal government should not countermand that.”
Agrast said he agrees with Wolfson and other gay rights advocates that civil unions could never be truly equal to marriage and that full marriage rights should remain the goal of the gay civil rights movement.
“But I don’t think the fact that it will take more time to achieve marriage should mean we should not confer full benefits on civil unions,” he said.
“I’m open to strategic decisions on how to go about doing this,” said Patrick Sammon, president of the national gay group Log Cabin Republicans. “We are for full marriage equality, but we realize that this effort is incremental.”
Sammon and Toni Broadus, executive director of the Equality Federation, which represents statewide gay advocacy groups, said activists across the country are focusing now on urging Congress to pass federal hate crimes legislation and legislation to ban job discrimination against gays and transgender persons.
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