Gains outweigh setbacks in a landmark year for gay rights
Repeal of the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy may be the movement's biggest victory yet, activists say.
By Robin Abcarian and Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times
December 19, 2010
Today the military, tomorrow the marriage altar?
In an era when gay Americans have seen stunning progress and many setbacks in the quest for equality under the law,
many believe 2010 will go down in history as a watershed that will lead inexorably to more legal rights.Saturday's vote in the Senate to allow the repeal of the federal law banning gays from openly serving in the military is "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, victory in the history of the movement for gay and lesbian equality," said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a UC Santa Barbara think tank that studies the issue of gays in the military. "Going back thousands of years, the marker of a first-class citizen has always been someone who's been allowed to serve in the military."
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Indeed, the most important victories for gays have been won this year in the courts and Congress, rather than through the electorate.
In July, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman, is unconstitutional. The Obama administration supported the statute, saying it was obligated to defend federal laws, even though President Obama has called it "abhorrent."
In August, a federal judge ruled that Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban passed by California voters, is unconstitutional. The ruling is on hold pending appeal.
And in September, another federal judge ruled the "don't ask, don't tell" law unconstitutional in response to a lawsuit brought by the gay group Log Cabin Republicans.
"The momentum in America," said Evan Wolfson, executive director of the national advocacy organization Freedom to Marry, is "toward the freedom to marry and ending unfair treatment of gay people." Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and the District of Columbia.more...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gay-rights-year-20101219,0,2690533.story