Homosexual Rights

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Homosexual Rights
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Overview

• Homosexuality has been a taboo subject
• Millions of gay and lesbian Americans are not
  only open about sexuality, they are campaigning
  for new laws

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Overview

• Want same rights as heterosexuals- want right to
  marry

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• Episcopalian church now has openly gay clergy
• Half of Americans now say in surveys that
  homosexuality should be considered an acceptable
  alternative lifestyle-compared to 1 in 3 people
  20 years ago

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Overview

• Surveys show Americans have mixed feelings about
  how far the government should go in giving rights
  to gays/lesbians
• Emotionally charged issue, many Americans still
  view it as objectionable

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Overview

• 2-10 of Americans are homosexual
• Many Americans lie or refuse to answer survey
  questions about sexuality, so we do not know
  accurate percentage

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• 1969- New York City police raided a popular gay
  bar- the Stonewall Inn, for allegedly selling
  liquor without a license. This caused two days
  of rioting, started the gay awareness movement

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• 1978- shooting death of San Francisco official
  Harvey Milk, openly gay man elected to office in
  a large city
• Killer received 5 year sentence

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AIDS

• 1981- small group of gay men in San Francisco
  started getting sick and dying
• Identified it as Human Immunodeficiency Virus
  (HIV)
• Virus destroys bodys immune system

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AIDS

• Spread through exchange of bodily fluid
• Federal government slow to respond
• 1985 study showed that more than half of
  Americans believed government would research AIDS
  more if it didnt primarily affect gay men

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AIDS

• ActUp and Human Rights Campaign- wanted public
  attention and government action
• silence is death
• AIDS spreading, not limited to gay men- could
  spread through heterosexual sex and drug users
  sharing needles

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Civil Rights

• Matter of equality- Homosexuals felt they should
  have the same rights and protections as
  heterosexuals

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Rights

• Protection against discrimination in employment,
  housing, and immigration
• Expansion of hate crime laws to include sexual
  orientation
• Domestic partner benefits similar to those
  granted to married couples

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Rights

• Right to marry or have their relationships
  recognized in civil unions
• The ability to serve in the military without
  hiding their sexuality

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Rights

• For many Americans, issue hinges on the question
  of whether homosexuality is a choice or an innate
  characteristic with which people are born

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Rights

• Advocates of gay rights say sexual orientation,
  like race or disability, cant be changed, and
  therefore they should be protected like any other
  minority group

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Rights

• Opponents of gay rights- many have religious
  roots. Most major religions oppose homosexuality
  as a violation of the law of God

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Rights

• Opponents of gay rights also worry that children
  who interact with openly gay adults- teachers or
  Boy Scout leaders, will view these adults as role
  models and make that same sexual choice

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Rights

• 2003 US Supreme Court ruled that gays and
  lesbians have a right to sexual privacy and are
  entitled to respect for their private lives.

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Partner and benefits

• 1989 Denmark became the first nation to grant
  legal rights to gay couples, calling the unions
  domestic partnerships

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Partner and benefits

• 1999 Netherlands allowed full fledged same-sex
  marriages
• Many Americans oppose granting legal recognition
  of same-sex couples, saying it would make a shift
  in definition of marriage

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Partner and benefits

• Marriage between man and a woman sanctifies the
  creation of new life and establishes the cohesive
  family (opponents)
• Supporters marriage is a fundamental right
  under Constitution and denying its benefits to
  homosexuals is discrimination

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Partner and benefits

• U.S. Constitution states are required to offer
  full faith and credit to legal actions in other
  states, including marriage
• Some legal experts argue there is an exception if
  states believe an out of state decision violates
  their own public policy

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Partner and benefits

• For example if some state or foreign country
  allowed bigamy or underage marriages, other
  states could refuse to recognize it
• Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act in
  1996 allowing states to refuse to recognize same
  sex marriage

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Defense of Marriage Act 1996

• President Bill Clinton
• marriage is a union between one man and one
  woman
• All federal laws about marriage apply exclusively
  to opposite sex couples

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• Civil Unions- state benefits to same sex couples
• State tax benefits, family health plans,
  co-parenting privileges, guardianship and
  decision making authority for medically
  incapacitated partner, protection under divorce
  and separation laws

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• Government Accountability Office lists 1,138
  federal laws that pertain to married couples

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• Taxes couples in a civil union may file a joint
  state tax return, but must file federal tax
  returns as single persons- this may be
  advantageous to some couples, but not for others

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• Married couples can transfer assets and wealth
  without incurring tax penalties

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• Health insurance if a private employers health
  plans are subject to state insurance laws,
  benefits must be extended to same sex spouse in a
  state that allows same sex marriage

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• Social Security survivor benefits survivor may
  have a right to Social Security payments based on
  the earnings of the married couple, rather than
  only the survivors earnings- Same sex couples
  are not eligible for such benefits

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• Immigration (a partner who is a foreign national
  cant become an American by entering into a civil
  union with someone)

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• Veterans and military benefits right to
  pensions, compensation for service related
  deaths, medical care, housing and right to burial
  in veterans cemeteries

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Civil Unions vs Marriage

• Right to federal benefits- States that allow some
  type of same sex union are able to grant only
  state rights
• Defense of Marriage Act prohibits same sex
  couples from receiving federal marriage rights
  and benefits

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• Portability civil unions are not recognized by
  all states, such agreements are not always valid
  when couples cross state lines

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• Terminology Marriage is a term that conveys
  societal and cultural meaning- important to both
  gay rights activists and those who dont believe
  gays should marry

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Partner and benefits

• Children gay couples/gay individuals hoping to
  adopt can face legal and societal hurdles
• Most states do not routinely deny custody or
  visitation based on sexual orientation

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• Focus on the Family Marriage is important
  because its a time-honored enduring social
  institution that serves women, men and children.

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• And civil unions undermine marriage by reducing
  it to a bundle of rights and benefits.
• Despite difficulties like divorce, marriage is
  still an institution that does what we need it
  to do for children.

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• Research children raised by married biological
  parents are better off on average than those
  raised by cohabiting biological parents- other
  studies show children raised by both parents fare
  better than children raised by one-

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• children raised by homosexual parents are just as
  emotionally and socially healthy as those raised
  by heterosexual parents

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• The Child Welfare League of America Studies
  using diverse samples and methodologies in the
  last decade have persuasively demonstrated that
  there are no systematic differences between gay
  or lesbian and non-gay or lesbian parents in
  emotional health, parenting skills, and attitudes
  toward parenting

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Public Viewpoint

• Vast majority of Americans say gays should have
  equal rights in terms of job opportunities
• Support declines when elementary school teachers
  or clergy are mentioned

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Public Viewpoint

• More than half say gay partners should receive
  domestic partner benefits like inheritance
  rights, health insurance, and Social Security

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Perspective 1 (Liberal View)

• Protect and extend equal rights of all our
  citizens

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• Feels its shameful that we allow gays and
  lesbians to be denied the same basic rights as
  every other citizen
• Routinely denied employment and housing
• Unable to obtain official recognition of their
  life partners, victims of hate crimes

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• Civil Rights Movement has shown us that it is
  often necessary and right for the federal
  government to step in and protect groups (women,
  disabled, African-Americans, etc)

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• Government protection and assurance of equality
  under the law must extend to gays and lesbians as
  well
• All citizens should enjoy full human rights- that
  is what American government is all about

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What should be done?

• Prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians
  in employment or housing
• Broaden hate crime legislation
• Employee benefits to domestic partners
• Right to marry, adopt, and receive benefits
• Serve openly in military

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Perspective 2

• Let states and communities choose solutions that
  work for them

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• Our nation is diverse
• Communities hold different values and opinions on
  dozens of issues, including homosexuality,
  diversity should be respected

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• Communities must be free to make their own
  choices because solutions really only work if
  they come from grassroots and reflect the values
  and norms of most people

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• Local policy on gay and lesbian issues has
  evolved over the years based on changing comfort
  levels, without government interference
• Some places offer protection for gays while
  others have imposed bans on same-sex behavior

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• Those who disagree with local decisions can seem
  remedies by moving elsewhere
• Federal government should follow, not lead

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What should be done?

• Government should let communities decide, based
  on their own norms and values, whether to allow
  same sex marriages or civil unions
• Communities, states, businesses should be allowed
  to decide if they want to offer domestic partner
  benefits

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• Communities should decide for themselves if they
  need hate crime laws or whether current laws are
  sufficient
• Laws should cover hate crimes against all
  minorities, not just gays and lesbians

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• Communities should decide based on community
  feelings, whether to include discussion of gay
  and lesbians in sex education

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Perspective 3 (Conservative View)

• Support and protect traditional institutions and
  values

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• Big difference between tolerating private
  behavior between consenting adults and endorsing
  such behavior by granting legal protections

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• Giving domestic partner benefits and special
  privileges legitimizes same sex relationships
  even though they cant create children, which is
  the major reason underlying governments
  traditional protection of marriage and family

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• Same-sex relationships are also deeply offensive
  to many Americans often based on religious
  beliefs
• Marriage is not just about love and commitment,
  but also about stability of family

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• We are already seeing the social damage caused by
  families weakened by divorce and single-parent
  households
• Granting new rights and benefits to gays and
  lesbians and inheritance rights would crush one
  of the pillars of stable, civil society

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What should be done?

• Enact legislation to strength and support
  traditional families- like a constitutional
  amendment defining marriage as a union between a
  man and a woman

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• Allow employers and landlords to live by their
  moral and religious codes
• Prevent gays and lesbians from getting any
  special legal rights or protections

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• Reinstate the ban on gays and lesbians serving in
  the military
• Ban adoptions by gay parents
• Prohibit public schools from having discussions
  about homosexuality into curriculum