JANUARY 9, 1998 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 9
SPEAK OUT
The winds of change are blowing ever harder
by Doreen Cudnik
The New Year has traditionally been a time to reflect on the year that has passed, reviewing both the successes and the defeats; and to look ahead to the coming year with fresh resolutions and renewed commitments. A number of significant events took place in 1997--both nationally and on the statewide level.
Just recently Athens, home to Ohio University, passed an ordinance outlawing anti-gay bias in housing and employment. The Cleveland suburbs of Lakewood and Westlake passed fair housing measures earlier in 1997, giving Ohio ten cities with lesbian-gay civil rights ordinances.
President Clinton became the first sitting president to address a gay and lesbian organization when he spoke at the Human Rights Campaign national dinner, and three days later he held a White House summit to address hate crimes.
The first ever Black Pride was held in August in Cleveland, and Akron organized their first official Pride celebration in October.
Two Ohio cities both elected openly gay officials, the first in the state: Mary Wiseman in Dayton and Louis Escobar in Toledo. According to Kathleen DeBold of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, this makes Ohio the 26th state to elect openly gay officials.
But on the down side, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland have all seen a marked increase in the number of "sting" operations in the parks, which seem to be disproportionately targeting gay men, and patrons in gay bars in both Cleveland and Columbus were shaken when police conducted drug raids that featured guns and "dynamic entry."
World AIDS Day statistics showed us that while the advent of protease inhibitors has cut the death rate from AIDS in the U.S., people are still being infected with HIV. Alarmingly, while the U.N. is reporting as many as 16,000 new infections a day worldwide, some gay men are throwing caution to the wind and engaging in the dangerous practice of "barebacking," anal sex without a condom— sometimes deliberately seeking infection from a "hot poz load."
On December 10, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released its annual survey of state legislation. Capital Gains and Losses: A State by State Review of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and HIV/AIDS_Related Legislation in 1997 is a telling picture of the prominence of states in the national struggle occurring over the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
NGLTF reports that since they started tracking activity in state legislatures in 1995, the number of GLBT-related measures has increased each year.
“1997 was an unequivocal step forward on our march to justice,” said Task Force director Kerry Lobel. "We've long known that the states and local communities are not only the barometer for the state of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights in America; they are the eye of the storm."
New Hampshire and Maine's passage of comprehensive civil rights laws for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals and Washington's statewide ballot initiative to ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation-the first such measure ever in the country-were some of the year's highlights. But the Washington initiative failed, and Maine's law will be put to a vote on February 10. Maine activists have been down that road before, and feel that the law will be upheld.
Also, the passage in 1997 of major domestic partnership measures in Hawaii, San Francisco and Chicago, coupled with a record number of favorable domestic partner bills introduced, reflects the growing importance of family issues in the GLBT community. The continued push forward for the freedom to marry during the past year was also a critical component in the effort for full recognition of GLBT families.
And speaking of families, courts in New Jersey set a national precedent when they recognized that all couples seeking to adopt a child should be judged only on their ability to love and care for a child, and not their sexual orientation.
Because of the landmark ruling, partners Jon Holden and Michael Galluccio were able to jointly adopt their foster son Adam; saving the time and expense of a separate adoption, and most importantly, giving Adam the legal protections that every child deserves. (See story on page 1.)
In the meantime, though, the right wing's rallying around a homophobic state adoption worker in Texas is indicative of the attacks on GLBT families that occurred in state legislatures in 1997, and foretells a likely increase in such attacks during the 1998 state legislative session.
NGLTF tracked 248 pieces of legislation in 1997, compared with 160 in 1996. The results indicate both good news and bad news.
The group classed 128 pieces of legislation in 38 states as "favorable," up from 60 favorable pieces of legislation 25 states in 1996. However, 120 pieces of legislation classified as "unfavorable" appeared in 44 states; compared with 100 in 40 states in 1996. When anti-marriage bills are removed, the figures show the favorable measures surpassing the unfavorable measures by 124 to 74 (compared with 56 to 50 in 1996). The 46 anti-marriage bills represented 38% of the unfavorable bills introduced, and 53% of all the unfavorable bills that were passed into law.
AIDS measures represented the largest percentage (28%) of the favorable measures introduced as well as passed (36%).
Civil rights measures represented the second largest percentage of favorable bills introduced (20%) and 17% of the favorable bills passed.
On the federal level, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund (which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 1998) announced that the new year will see a record number of lesbian, gay, and AIDS-related concerns in the country's highest courts.
"The Supreme Court and other high-level courts are expected to address employment, the military, disability protections, family and other fundamental constitutional issues for lesbians, gay men and people with HIV in 1998," said Lambda legal director Beatrice Dohm. "We expect an unprecedented number of decisions from top-level state as well as federal courts, and they are likely to affect the way lesbians and gay men are treated across the country for many years to come."
The first of these is a final ruling that may come any day from the Hawaii Supereme Court on same-sex marriage. Lambda said the U.S. Supreme Court will likely hear the discrimination case of lesbian attorney Robin Shahar, denied a job after she and her partner had a private, religious wedding, and will make a final decision on whether sexual harassment laws apply when both parties are the same sex, in the case of heterosexual oil rig worker James Oncale.
One case that has significance to Ohio, as well as the rest of the country, is Cincinnati's Issue 3. In a renegade ruling last fall, a threejudge panel disregarded the Supreme Court's ruling against Colorado's nearly identical Amendment 2 and upheld Issue 3, which would prohibit city council from passing discrimination protections for lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. Determined to put an end to the country's last remaining anti-gay ballot initiative, Lambda has appealed for a hearing by the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
So, it's happening. As we move into 1998, the winds of change are blowing even harder. We have much to look forward to, but the work at the grassroots level all the way up to the halls of Congress-must continue. As Beatrice Dohrn said, “Never have the stakes been so high for the civil rights of our community."
Happy New Year to all, and may 1998 bring us all we so richly desire and deserve.
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