It’s been a crazy mixed up year. On some fronts, we’ve advanced, on others, we’ve been beaten back. Literally beaten. America sent so many conflicting signals to the gay community, that I’ve been confused, thrilled and terrified all at once. Here, then, is a partial recap of notable news for the gay community. It’s probably as random and confusing as the year itself has been:
You could say it all started with the ads. “Truth in Love” seemed to tell us that by embracing the church (a white, male, rich persons’ church) we could “become normal.” Whatever that is. This brought to you courtesy of the folks who also feel women should be “submissive.” Over and over we heard “love the sinner and hate the sin.” Some hated the sin so much they beat the sinner to death. In New York, Baltimore, Texas, and (most horribly), Wyoming, gay men and lesbians faced violence where they thought they were safe. This coincided with reports that the police are often caught “cooking “ the books, so assaults don’t get recorded, keeping a city’s resume favorable.
The city of San Francisco boldly stated that we are acceptable (even valuable employees), so much so that it will not do business with companies that do not offer domestic partner (DP) benefits. Most companies didn’t even blink. United Airlines, however, balked and is still in court. This case gained huge visibility when UAL, the parent company of United, joined forces with the American Center for Law and Justice; an organization associated with Pat Robertson, and doesn’t like gays all that much. The Human Rights Campaign, along with other gay groups, is encouraging gays and lesbians to contact UAL, and make other airline choices. The Salvation Army, whose religious foundation forbade them from offering DP benefits, has decided to relocate some of it’s offices outside of San Francisco.
We did not fare well with the voters in 1998. Washington State voters rejected an equal protection clause, owing much to rural votes gathered by the religious right to stop our “special rights” drive. In Alaska and Hawaii, voters also rejected our desire to wed. The battle in Hawaii is not over, despite a media blitz funded by a conservative coalition. The Supreme Court of Hawaii has yet to rule on the rights of two same sex couples to wed. The vote in November did not define marriage as one man and one woman. But was an amendment to the state constitution allowing the legislature to define it as such. They have yet to do so. It is still possible, and likely, that the court will find that allowing only heterosexual couples to wed violates the bill of rights and the constitution. Which, despite Fob James’ arguments to the contrary, applies to the states.
If it wasn’t our year at the ballot box, it was certainly a big year in the courts. Our biggest victories came in Georgia and Oregon. In 1986, The US Supreme Court Case Bowers v. Hardwick legitimized the oppressive sodomy law of Georgia, and made the career of conservative District Attorney Bowers. However, when it was challenged in 1998, the Supreme Court of Georgia found that the law violated the unlawful search and seizure clause of the constitution.
It is sad to note that this defeat comes in a case of HETEROSEXUAL sodomy, in which an uncle was accused of raping his young niece. Because the event took place in private and the evidence was circumstantial, he was convicted of “simple” sodomy instead. After serving 14 months of his 5-year sentence, his lawyers challenged the constitutionality of the sodomy law. Odd that it was the heterosexual challenge that won the day. Despite awful beginnings, this case has opened an entirely new strategy in the battle to repeal sodomy laws. Recently, two men in Texas were arrested while having sex when a deputy accidentally entered the wrong apartment while on a phony burglary call. The Georgia strategy will be applied here as well as Arkansas. Lambda Legal Defense and Education fund has also participated in successful challenges to sodomy laws in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Montana
In Oregon, the courts found that the state had a compelling interest in offering “domestic partnership” benefits to public employees. The court found that the state discriminates against gay people when it uses marital status to determine which employees are entitled to governmental benefits and protections. Extension of benefits only to married couples, the court found, violated Oregon’s “equal privileges and immunities” constitutional clause. Suddenly, our lack of marriage rights becomes a tool to encourage bias. (You can’t have this because you aren’t married, but you aren’t allowed to wed.) Fighting with this new strategy will be a major legal course of action when a state attempts to use marital status to put gays or lesbians at a disadvantage, according to the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Other notable cases in the courts involve challenges to the anti-gay ban in the Boy Scouts and several cases involving gag orders being placed on teachers in California and Utah.
1998 also saw the emergence of a new type of media personality, the professional gay-basher; usually a selective-bible-verse-quoting Christian. These odd folk, Gary Bauer (Family Research Council), Ralph Reed (Founder of the Moral Majority, and consultant to our soon to be ex-governor), and James Dobson (Focus On The Family), have determined that gays are the direst threat that the United States faces. They’ve been on high rotation - every talk show seems to have hosted them.
Even stranger is the “ex-gay” poster couple, the Paulks. John Paulk, a former Drag-Queen, and his former-lesbian wife Anne are now (thanks to God) a happy and procreating trophy for Exodus ministries. The Paulks seemed to offer a less hateful strategy to the religious right. But many of Mr. Paulk’s former friends comment that he would do anything to get attention, and several interviews with Mrs. Paulk indicate that she never actually had sex or a relationship with another woman. In a telling interview with the Wall Street Journal, John Paulk admitted that he isn’t 100% cured of his homosexuality and doesn’t have a straight orientation intense as that of the “average man on the street.” Interestingly, Mr. Paulk works for Focus on the Family, and is vice chair of Exodus ministries. Of the 800 odd people featured in the “Truth In Love” ads, only the Paulks are talking to the media.
Their story, while intriguing, belies what the professional medical and psychiatric community has been saying; A homosexual person is not abnormal, and does not qualify as mentally ill. In fact, recent statements from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) note that these “reparative therapy” programs (such as Exodus Ministries) actually may cause more harm than good. This “dangerously misguided” philosophy is not acceptable to the APA, and therapists who persist in using such treatments may face ethics charges and licensing questions.
Strangely, there is no room in the new anti-gay pogrom for the heroes of the past, and they remain thankfully silent. Zealots like Anita Bryant have retreated (she’s now in Branson, Missouri.) Dade County Florida has undone her “righteous” labors of 1977, and has voted in anti-discrimination policies, offering gays what the former Miss America felt we should be denied..
Another event in 1998 was the widespread opening of closet doors. George Michael is now famous for his bathroom antics. Mark Tewksbury emerged from his post-Olympic swimming closet to announce “I’m a great screaming queen and glad to be that way.” Olympic skater Brian Orser also came out, after attempting to muzzle his ex during a palimony lawsuit. He insists he “still skates like a man.” You go girl.
More quietly, but perhaps more significantly, the Republican Party has been shocked from within. Former Republican Congressman Michael Huffington (R-CA) came out this December. Huffington ran for Congress in 1992 on a “Traditional Values” platform (with record setting expenses). Following an unsuccessful bid at a Senate seat, he has left his wife, Ariana Huffington, (a frequent conservative political commentator) to carry the Traditional Values torch. These apparently include marrying a man who says he’s gay – but to her credit, her only concern now is that he be a good father to their children.
In North Carolina, Superior Court Judge Ray Warren, who unsuccessfully ran for the state Supreme Court, also emerged from the closet. He lost his bid by only 4,000 votes. With four years remaining in his term, he has become the first openly gay Republican office holder in NC. The state GOP has not taken it well, declaring that he has “betrayed the party.” He doubts he has much of a political future in the conservative state and says “With Jesse Helms in congress I probably won’t be getting any Federal Appointments.” He also feels that the GOP has been taken over by “old Puritans.”
Unlike the eighties, were we begged for attention and screamed for help in our crisis, we’ve become a part of the media landscape. Will and Grace, a sassy and very gay comedy, appeared and prospered on NBC, with none of the madness seen with Ellen. Ellen’s spouse, Anne Heche, is everywhere it seems. This is probably a plot by that infamous gay Hollywood Mafia. That same Mafia also brought us “Gods and Monsters.” An acclaimed movie about openly gay filmmaker James Whale, bankrolled by horror writer/movie producer Clive Barker (who is also out) and staring the openly gay Sir Ian McKellan. Future Star Wars icon, Ewan McGregor even said “snogging a guy” was a new and interesting experience, regarding his gay love scene in the film The Velvet Goldmine. This, in today’s media, is no big deal. If only the country as a whole could see it as such.
On the whole, the mixed messages of 1998 were pretty good. We’re advancing socially, but we remain horribly divided as a community (circuit party vs. homebody, activist vs. assimilationist, monogamy vs. promiscuity ) – perhaps our resolution for 1999 should be “Enter the next century as a community and not an argumentative coaltion.”
This review of events was compiled in part using the electronic services GLB-NEWS and GLB-PRESS.
Tod Companion will be back covering science and health in 1999, as well as beginning a series of community profiles “People You Should Know.” His studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Biochemistry are ongoing. He can be reached at todc@geocities.com, and his articles are archived at www.geocities.com/~todc.