End-of-Summer Thoughts on LGBT Equality

Will the end of this year be a reverse image to that of 2008? Two years ago, most people in the LGBT community were looking ahead to the upcoming elections. There seemed a good chance that Barack Obama — who promised to be a “fierce advocate” for our community, would win the presidency, and that California voters would side with equality and reject Proposition 8.

The last few months of 2008 brought both joy and disappointment. Obama had been elected, but Prop 8 had passed, with many people swayed by right-wing scare tactics claiming that marriage equality would lead to teaching about “homosexuality” in schools.

The end of 2010 may be similarly split. There have been several big advances in federal marriage equality cases over the summer: U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional, and U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro’s two rulings that a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. Even though the Prop 8 ruling has been appealed, and the DOMA rulings might be, there seems a reasonable chance that one or all will survive at least the circuit court level.

At the same time, the Democrats could easily lose control of Congress in the fall — and as much as we may criticize their slow progress on LGBT rights, I have little doubt things would be worse under the Republicans. They’re just not there yet, as Michael Jones made clear here the other day.

And even if the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) manages to pass before the end of this session of Congress (I’m not holding my breath), more than 20 other LGBT-related bills will expire without action. Under a Republican Congress, they will have even less of a chance.

Steps forward and steps back. We should be used to that. The recent marriage victories, however, have perhaps given us a little of what a certain politician himself once promised: a bit of hope. Could that mean the balance is slightly in our favor this time?

Hope without further action, however, is mere longing. Hope backed by deeds, though, can change the world.

Mid-term elections rarely generate the interest of those in a presidential-election year. I'm not sensing nearly the buzz among the broad LGBT community that there was in 2008, however (although organizational leaders and leading activists are certainly working hard). Across the country, we need to be as engaged in the elections as we were in 2008 if we're going to have any chance of advancing LGBT legislation in the next two years.

It’s going to be a busy few months.

Photo credit: David Sifry