The LGBT rights movement long ago has invested itself in a state by state election strategy. National politics has disregarded our concerns for decades, literally, with no national legislation on LGBT rights ever being passed and signed into law. What little we have made progress on, like support behind the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, has been severely tarnished by the move by centrist LGBT leaders and some allies to give generous exclusions to religious institutions from the bill and take out the rights of transgender, gender variant and gender non-conforming individuals from the Act.
2008 will hold the fight for the presidency and congress in the spotlight, but left at the margins of societal consciousness is the state by state fight LGBT people will be waging to either preserve their newfound rights or to prevent their already unprotected status from becoming even more marginalized by the electoral power of bigots, marriage amendments and ignorance. This post is a start at covering some of the battlegrounds for the LGBT rights movement this fall. It's more than California and marriage equality, as important as that issue is to many in the LGBT community. Below the fold I outline 2 battle fields, though there are certainly many more, that I intend on involving myself with this year:
Florida fighting marriage amendment
I grew up in Florida for most of my childhood, so an anti-gay amendment in one of my hometowns is personal.
The so-called marriage protection amendment, three years in the making, would define marriage in Florida as exclusively between a man and a woman.
"No other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized," the amendment language says.
This amendment, by stating that "no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof", carries with it more than enshrining homophobia in the state constitution. What little rights some localities in Florida offer to LGBT relationships could become illegal if opponents target those rights as being "substantial equivalents" of marriage. Furthermore, unmarried heterosexual couples and other non-traditional families are put at risk by this amendment.
The marriage fight continues in Florida, California and other states this fall. We're still more defense than offense in this fight, but the prospects in California (along with years of experience fighting these amendments) make LGBT rights activists prepared to take on homophobic bigots toe to toe in Florida.
For more information:
Sayno2
Equality Florida
Montgomery County and the potential reversal of civil rights legislation
From the organization Basic Rights Montgomery:
A group of Montgomery County residents, joined by the advocacy organization Equality Maryland, announced the formation of a campaign to preserve a gender identity non-discrimination law that was unanimously passed last November by the County Council. Basic Rights Montgomery, chaired by local business leader James R. Walker, Jr., will ensure that voters have the facts about this law.
"Transgender people deserve the right to have a job and a home and provide for themselves and their families, just like everybody else," said Walker, a Chevy Chase resident who sits on the Board of Equality Maryland. "We in Montgomery County are proud to live in a diverse community that welcomes all people. Basic Rights Montgomery is confident that with the facts, the fair-minded people of our county will reject attempts to roll back our anti-discrimination laws."
In March, Mr. Walker joined Takoma Park Mayor Bruce Williams, Progressive Maryland Board Chair Elbridge James, and several other residents in a legal challenge to the validity of the signatures gathered in an attempt to repeal the law. Equality Maryland, a statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, hired local attorney Jonathon Shurberg to request judicial review of the signatures. With a ruling unlikely before summer, Basic Rights Montgomery has been formed to prepare for the possibility of a November referendum on this basic civil rights law.
"The LGBT community in Maryland and nationally sees this as an important opportunity to inform our neighbors about the unique challenges and the intolerable discrimination faced by people who don't conform to certain societal gender expectations," said Rea Carey, Acting Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund. "The Task Force is announcing a $20,000 challenge grant so that we can get to work – right now – in putting together the necessary campaign to counter the misinformation being spread by those who would repeal these vital protections."
I volunteered for a fundraising drive hosted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force here in NYC. We were raising money so that Basic Rights Montgomery could hire a campaign manager to fight the bigoted anti-trans amendment in the fall.
The most worrying issue with this ballot challenge to a civil rights bill is that it's a test being initiated by the right. If they succeed in Montgomery County, a fairly liberal county, we very well could see these challenges spread to the states, cities and localities that allow protections based on gender identity and expression.
I go to university in D.C., so this challenge is happening right in my backyard. I have a transgender friend who literally lives right across the street from Montgomery County. By simply crossing the street, she could lose rights of protection from discrimination that she would be afforded right on the other side.
For More Information:
Equality Maryland
Author's Note: My name is Travis Ballie. My area of activism centers particularly around queer activism. My goal is to write diaries on DailyKos as a regular update concerning issues facing the queer community. I sincerely hope to gain a readership base of committed LGBT activists and our supporters. Such a base will only enhance DailyKos and provoke greater thought. Just as a note, I may use terms like gay, lesbian, bisexual transgender (GLBT) or queer (a substitute for GLBT).