Gay equality opens the American Dream to all

Growing up in rural America, I had a very idealized view of the way that life is supposed to be. Step one is to graduate from high school. Follow this up with a few Bright College Years where you meet the mate of your dreams and, soon after graduation, get married and have little bambinos. After all of this craziness the only obligation left is to live happily ever after while donating your millions to Yale. Great. Let out that breath that you were holding in—the plan of life as it has been passed down from time immemorial by the sages of small town America.

ERIN I. LEWIS/YH

Of course this little idyllic plan isn't followed so closely outside of Mayberry, but it sure sounds great. For some, it seems that there are even bigger problems with the plan than picking out a restaurant for popping the question. High school, college, and the lover are a snap, but that little question of marriage throws a wrench into the workings of life. And don't even mention the bambinos.

These are problems that many gays and lesbians have had to deal with in their battle for equality with the rest of America. But thanks to forward-looking lawmakers and justices, the fight for a truly egalitarian society is slowly being realized.

Kudos must first be given to the Scandinavian countries, where gays have the greatest social equality of any area in the world. Norway and Sweden both allow gay couples to register their partnerships. Denmark, which has allowed gay marriages (dare we use such a word) since 1989, was joined last week by the Netherlands, whose new same-sex marriage statute has granted rights beyond those of any other country.

At home, the victories have been less sweeping, but still laudable. When the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that gays were being treated unequally because the state did not allow them a union similar to marriage, state lawmakers courageously passed a bill legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples, knowing the possible repercussions. And last week, ensue they did. Five Republicans who supported the gay civil unions were ousted in the Vermont primaries. One Democrat who supported the measure was also axed.

So what does all of this mean for the current national election? First, the courts really do matter. No matter what many academics theorize, they have a powerful effect on the state of rights in America. Do we want the likes of arch-conservative Justices Thomas and Scalia leading us on into the future? During the next presidency, two or more justices will join the ranks of Social Security pensioners. Important questions such as those raised in the recent Boy Scout case, in which the court ruled that the Scouts could ban gay members from the organization, will continue to come before the court. George W. Bush, DC '68, has noted that Thomas and Scalia are his favorites among the current justices, which I find frightening. We need a President who is going to appoint justices who truly will stand for the rights of the marginalized.

We need an executive who is not only going to support gay rights, as Governor Howard Dean of Vermont did, but who will lead in setting the agenda. This means working to end the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy so that openly gay and lesbian members of the armed forces can serve without fear of punishment. This is something that Democrat Al Gore has proposed (who says that nothing good comes from Harvard?). He could follow that admirable stance up by working to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, truly nothing more than a slap in the face to the gay community, which mandates that states need not recognize same sex unions from other states and that a marriage is defined as being between two persons of the opposite sex.

This also means that we need legislators who will be fair-minded individuals that truly stand up for what they believe even with Pat Robertson and his 700 Club staring them down. If their consituents disagree, they might be sent home in the next election, but legislators cannot stand cowering before the likes of the Christian Coalition, which certainly does not represent the views of most Americans.

So what can we do? First, vote. I suppose that if you are communist you probably aren't particularly fond of either candidate, but for the sake of the rest of us, I beseech you to vote for Gore. Further, let those who love do so with unbridled passion in life as well as in law—as Shakespeare said in Sonnet 116, "Let me not the marriage of true minds admit impediment." A little out of context, but you get the point.

Ethan Guillen is a junior in Berkeley.

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