Local Voices: "Recent Events Show Gays Gaining Equality"

by Robert Gatesman of Oil City:

I am pleased and encouraged by recent events in the campaign for full civil rights for America's gay community. The Iowa supreme Court unanimously overturned that state's gay marriage ban. and the Vermont legislature legalized same-sex marriage over the Republican governor's veto.

Thus, in one week, the number of states granting their gay population full equality under the law doubled from two to four.

The same day Vermont decided, the city council in our nation's capital voted 12-0 to recognize gay marriages performed in other states. And legalizing it in Washington, DC, itself looms on the horizon.

New Hampshire, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Maine are considering full civil rights for gays; a bill already passed in New Hampshire's lower house.

The greatest obstacle to gay civil rights will, of course, by the solid South. Considering that they accepted civil rights for their black citizens 50 years ago only at the point of a National Guardsmean's rifle, winning them over will take time and much effort.

On a lighter note, I congratulate President and Mrs. Obama who, unlike the Bushes, invited gay couples and their children to join in the Easter egg roll at the White House this year.

The gay civil rights movement has seen some temporary setbacks such as Proposition 8 in California. And who can forget the damage done by the orange-juice queen, Anita Bryant?

But recent developments are encouraging.

The recently released, award-winning movie "Milk," which relates the life and death of the first openly gay man to be elected to city government, also has been an inspiration to Americans, both gay and straight.

I was fortunate enough to live in San Francisco at the time and was personally familiar with some of the characters portrayed in the film. It is an accurate depiction of the times and events.

I recommend it to anyone who wishes to know more about the roots of the American gay civil rights movement.