State of The Union Address: A Gay Agenda for Everyone

A Gay Agenda for Everyone
By DAN SAVAGE

I'm not an idiot: Now that the Republicans hold the House, only
wishful thinkers and the deeply delusional expect to see any movement
on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender legislative agenda this
year or next. Nevertheless, President Obama should address gay rights
in his State of the Union speech this week, and he should tackle the
biggest, most meaningful right of them all: the right to marry.

When he was a candidate for the Illinois State Senate in 1996, Mr.
Obama told a gay publication that he supported "legalizing same-sex
marriages." Twelve years later, right about the time he decided to run
for president, he came out against marriage equality. But, as the
president likes to say, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it
bends toward justice." Where a Gallup poll in 1996 found that just 27
percent of the nation supported equal marriage rights for same-sex
couples, a CNN poll last summer found that a majority now supports
marriage equality.

The president — perhaps after introducing Daniel Hernandez Jr., the
openly gay intern credited with saving Representative Gabrielle
Giffords's life — should declare that the trend is clear: this country
increasingly believes that Mr. Hernandez and other lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender Americans should have all the same rights and
responsibilities as other citizens.

Gay Americans are eventually going to win on marriage just like we won
on military service, the president should tell Congress, so why not
save everyone on both sides of the debate a lot of time, trouble and
money by approving the entire gay rights agenda? Send the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act, the Student Non-Discrimination Act, the
Uniting American Families Act and the repeal of the odious Defense of
Marriage Act to his desk for his signature.

He can assure the lawmakers that, yes, there's something in it for
Americans who disapprove of homosexuality too.

Social conservatives long to raise their children in a country where
they don't have to hear about homosexuality every time they turn on
the news. I'd like raise my son in a country like that too. And guess
what? In countries like Canada — where the fight over gay rights is
essentially over, where there is gay marriage, open military service
and employment protections — homosexuality hardly ever makes the front
pages of newspapers. There's nothing much to report.

Conservatives can't get rid of us, but they can hear less from and
about us. They just have to bend toward justice.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/opinion/23savage.html

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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

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