All of this is further evidence that we are winning -- and that we need to act like we’re winning and take the offensive. It’s true that, for the most part, we’re only starting to win the debate and have yet to win many of those all-important tangible rights, as a vast majority of the states still don’t recognize marriage equality. We don’t yet have federal protections against hate crimes or antidiscrimination laws safeguarding the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in housing, employment, and public accommodations. And discrimination is still written into federal law, as the largest employer in the country -- the American military -- legally prohibits us from serving openly. Some people have suggested that marriage equality will usher in these other rights -- and that may be true. But it will be a very long time before marriage for gay men and lesbians arrives in all 50 states, so we’ve got to fight for all of these basic rights too. We have lots of battles on many fronts, and no doubt we’ll have some big losses as well as some wins.
Still, 40 years ago the Stonewall rioters couldn’t have imagined that on this day there’d be gay people getting married in the heartland or that a legislature would override a governor in standing up for marriage equality. Iowa and Vermont, perhaps more than Prop. 8 and the protests that followed, will likely be looked back on as a major turning point, yet another Stonewall moment.
Yeah? And then we have a weekend of the DoJ defending DOMA with the most egregious language imaginable. What's that they say about 2 steps forward, one step back?
Update An article at the conservative Independent Gay Forum rightly comments,
DOMA and DADT are federal laws that explicitly require the government to discriminate based on a person's sexual orientation. Discrimination is the considered policy of the U.S. government when it comes to lesbians and gay men.Seems to me the claim of victory is a tad premature.
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