Civil rights

I've been interested in the gay civil rights issue for a long time, despite being straight. Back in 1977 I was hotly against Anita Bryant's successful campaign to deny job protection to gay teachers in Miami, though less from being pro-gay than from being against fundamentalist Christians wanting to rewrite the law to match a religious agenda.

And I've always been for same-sex marriage. (Back in the 1970s, I recall the advice columnist Ann Landers predicting that it would eventually be allowed because it gave couples access to things like joint tax returns.) I remember presidential candidate Richard Gephardt dismissing it as "not feasible" 15 years ago--that's leadership?  Some liberals tried to come up with a dim compromise called civil unions, but in the end the courts decreed it just as with interracial marriages.  By the way, the liberals who keep saying that Barack Obama was stronger on gay civil rights than any of his predecessors are like someone comparing a normal man to a long line of dwarfs and calling him a giant!

I also believe in civil rights for the transgender community. About a decade ago Democrats introduced a gay civil rights bill in Congress but excluded trannies.  It would be one thing if doing that would tip the balance in favor of passing it--then I'd say, "Get this much today, get the rest tomorrow.  But President Bush had promised to veto the bill anyway if it got to him, so they had nothing to gain!  This was compromising for the sake of compromising, and that's weak.

Anyway, we all have some prejudices. (That's the price of having an identity!) Courage is in having fears but overcoming them, and wisdom is in overcoming your prejudices.