Local Nowt: CMF Awards $50K in Grants for 2004, p<4 OpHon: When the Political Becomes Personal, p.18
January 7,2005 Serving the Carolinas For Over 25 Years! Volume 26, Number 1
A Gay 8c Lesbian Year in Review
By Bob Roehr
Contributing Writer
This was die year of marriage rights -
again. And the subject is likely to cop
top honors for several more years to
come before the final chapter is written.
But in some senses they may all seem a
tad anticlimactic when compared with
2004.
The stage had been set by the
Massachusetts supreme court with the
dramatic decision in November 2003
that "The Massachusetts Constitution
affirms the dignity and equality of all
individuals. It forbids the creation of
second-class citizens... the
Commonwealth [of Massachusetts] has
failed to identify any constitutionally
adequate reason for denying civil mar
riage to same-sex couples."
However, the court gave the legisla
ture six months in which to take action
before its order took effect Legislators
asked the court if they might create civil
unions instead. Early in 2003> the court
said no; "Without the right to choose
who to marry, same-sex couples are not
only denied full protection of the laws,
but are 'excluded from the full range of
human experience/"
Social conservatives preached gloom
and doom, demanding that foe legisla
tors send a constitutional amendment
to the people to let them decide the
issue. The politicians obliged, setting a
date for a constitutional session. Pro
gay forces mustered their own social
and political capital for the fight.
The first session deadlocked over
competing versions of an amendment
and adjourned after three days of
debate in early February.
That drama was upstaged on
February 12 with the peal of wedding
bells from San Francisco. Shortly before
noon, lesbian icons Del Martin, 83, and
Phyllis Lyon, 79, became the first same
sex couplegranted a marriage license in
city hall. Their celebratory photo was
splashed across the front page of the
San Francisco Chronicle and papers in
many other cities.
Newly elected mayor Gavin
Newsom, movie star handsome and
heterosexual, had hatched a plan to use
California's gender-neutral marriage
laws and an interpretation from the
city's lawyers that refusing to issue
marriage licenses to same sex couple
was unconstitutional under fire state
charter
And the floodgates opened. Gay and
lesbian couples, many with kids in tow.
A May 20 AIDS Protest outside of the Republican National Committee in DC Photo by Bob Roehr
rushed to city hall to get married,.
Hundreds stood in line in the rain over
the weekend to get their licenses. Many
of them had been together for decades.
Other local officials in various cor
ners of the country dared to join the
fray for marriage equality: Sandoval
County, New Mexico, New Paltz, New
York, and Portland, Oregon were
among the most prominent.
"Something is happening out there.
Instead of begging for the basic right to
marry, gay couples are now demanding
it," wrote gay conservative Andrew
Sullivan on his blog. "This will alter the
debate...and when the religious right
try to strip us of those marriages, and
force us back into second-class status,
then we will see something else: resis
tance."
The country was shocked. And then,
as die joyous scenes were replayed
again and again in die media, the shock
abated and many Americans began to
understand that gay and lesbian cou
ples really weren't all that different All
they wanted was the same thing as
everyone else, to many their partner
and take on die full load of benefits and
responsibilities that marriage entails.
The flurry of marriages didn't last
long. Political pressure and lawsuits
filed by social conservatives brought
injunctions from the courts against fur
ther marriages in one jurisdiction and
then another. And the door to marriage
slammed shut The tedious legal wran
gling continues to play out in a handful
of states and will continue to do so for a
year or more. Many ofthe same sex
marriages performed during that brief
period remain in legal limbo.
The Massachusetts-; legislature met
again as a constitutional convention at
• the end of March. It wasted little time in
adopting a compromise amendment
that would define marriage as only
between a man and a woman. The
amendment also would create civil
unions for same sex couples, turning
back attempts by conservatives to
divide the two issues on the ballot.
Civil unions, a notion that only a few
years earlier had seemed so radical
when first proposed in Vermont had
now become the compromise position
in the battle for gay equality.
The final vote on the Massachusetts
amendment was 105-92, barely more
than the 101 votes needed for passage.
It requires a second vote of the legisla
ture meeting as a convention before it
can be sent to the voters in November
2006 for their say.
But that did not stop the order of the
court from going into effect; on May 17
hundreds of gay and lesbian couples
began to march down the aisles to
pledge their troth each to the other.
National Marriage Politics
The Federal Marriage Amendment
(FMA), to prohibit gays from marrying,
had languished in Congress. It got a
huge boost when President George W.
Bush held a February 24 White House
continued on page 8
2004 in Review
People
By Bob Roehr
Contributing Writer
"Who was Jim McGreevey?" is
likely to be a trivia question some
years down the road. But for sev
eral weeks at the end of the sum
mer, the nation was stunned and
titillated by stories of the then
Governor of New Jersey.
The tale began with a hastily
called televised news conference
on August 12 where McGreevey
announced, "I am a gay
American." The twice married,
father of two was surrounded by
his family.
The shocker was meant to draw
attention away from another part
of his statement, "circumstances
surrounding the affair and its like
ly impact upon my family and my
ability to govern," which would
cause him to resign as Governor.
First in dribs, then torrents, the
soap opera-ish details of an adul
terous affair with Golan Cipel
spewed forth. The Gov had met
his boy toy on a trade mission to
Israel and soon had him back in
continued on page 12
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