Equality Reacts

James Esseks, Director of the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project:

“Today’s decision is a huge victory for the LGBT people of America. For the first time, a federal court has conducted a trial and found that there is absolutely no reason to deny same-sex couples the fairness and dignity of marriage. At the same time, we know that this is not the end. In order to give this case the best possible chance of success as it moves through the appeals courts, we need to show that America is ready for same-sex couples to marry by continuing to seek marriage and other relationship protections in states across the country. It’s simply not fair, and not legal, to continue to exclude committed same-sex couples from marriage.”

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

"This ruling marks a victory for loving, committed couples who want nothing more than the same rights and security as other families. From the start, this has been about basic fairness. Today we celebrate the affirmation of this fundamental principle; tomorrow, we are back out there sharing our personal stories and having conversations with Californians and people all across the country about why this matters and who we are. The tide is turning nationwide in favor of marriage equality, but our work is far from over. Today’s ruling is just a beginning step in what will likely be a long process, yet we are confident that fairness will prevail. Our conversations are breaking down barriers and helping to transform our country."

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese:

“After hearing extensive evidence in support of marriage equality, and essentially no defense of the discrimination wrought by Prop 8, Judge Walker reached the same conclusion we have always known to be true – the Constitution’s protections are for all Americans, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. We thank the courageous plaintiff couples, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, and attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies for their tremendous efforts leading to today’s decision and their ongoing commitment as the case moves forward on appeal. The battle for marriage equality continues, and we must all continue our work – in courthouses and statehouses, in church pews and living rooms – until equality is reality for LGBT people and our families everywhere.”

Cyndi Lauper:

"Gay and lesbian couples have long struggled for acceptance and the ability to marry the person they love and want to build a family with. Today's landmark ruling declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional is a testament to the fundamentals on which this great country was built and validates that the discrimination gay couples face must come to an end. We as a society should be embracing these couples and helping them make the lifelong commitment to each other that many of us straight people take for granted each and every day. This decision is a major step in the right direction towards equality. On behalf of the True Colors Fund and the Give a Damn Campaign, I want to commend and thank Chad Griffin and the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the legal team headed by Ted Olson and David Boies, and the plaintiffs in the case, Kris Perry & Sandy Stier and Paul Katami & Jeff Zarrillo, for their leadership and courage in standing up for equality and fairness."

This Should Not Go Unnoticed

Robert Carter, right, with Dan McCarthy, left, Bernard Lynch and John McNeill at a gay pride march in the early 1980s.
In the early 1970s, the Reverend Robert Carter became one of the first Roman Catholic priests to come out of the closet. As a result of his public declaration that he was both gay and Catholic, he helped found the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force [NGLTF]. Father Carter died February 22 at the age of eighty-two.
In October 1973, Dr. Howard J. Brown, a former New York City health services administrator, announced that he was gay and that he was forming a civil rights organization called the National Gay Task Force, which later became the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. With the group receiving national attention, an article about them appeared in the New York Times which said: “A number of homosexual and lesbian organizations were represented on the board. One member was the Rev. Robert Carter, a Jesuit priest and professor of historical theology.”

Father Carter’s coming out was very public one.

Soon afterward he was visited by a subprovincial of the Jesuit order, who wondered if Carter had had some sort of "psychotic break;" Carter denied this claim, and suddenly there were numerous calls for his expulsion from the church by irate “Jesuits, parents and alumni of our schools.”

Funny, that at the same time they were calling for Carter's expulsion for being openly gay, the church was shuttling pedophiles around from parish to parish in silence. Had they chosen another path, to openly embrace Carter and other gay priests, and parishioners, and punish the pedophiles, we might have a very different Catholic church today.
But I digress.

While Father Carter was not disciplined, it was the belief of the church that homosexual attraction is “disordered,” and that gay people who are celibate are not inherently sinful. The church continued its practice of denying admission to the seminary, or refusing to ordain "those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

But Father Carter did not give up, or hide, or feel shame. Instead, he helped found the New York chapter of DignityUSA, a support group for gay Catholics. He hosted the first meeting of the group in 1972, with the Reverend John McNeill, who recalls Carter as "the heart of Dignity. I was doing all the writing, but he was on the front line, meeting with people, counseling people.” Of course, in typical fashion, Catholic authorities decided DignityUSA could not meet on church property, so Father Carter began celebrating Mass in apartments all around Manhattan.

He led blessing ceremonies for gay couples.
He testified in support of the gay rights law proposed by Mayor Edward I. Koch before it was passed by the City Council in 1986.
He urged Dignity to march in gay pride parades and marched himself, in his clerical collar.
He counseled gay priests and hundreds of lay Catholics.
He counseled AIDS patients at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx.
He became a supervisor of the outpatient AIDS program at the Bellevue Hospital.

Brendan Fay: “As I sought to reconcile being gay and Catholic, Bob Carter helped me move from self-hate to self-acceptance and then to a place of gay activism. He was like a Catholic Harvey Milk.”

For him, there was no contradiction between homosexuality and Christianity, and, in his unpublished memoir, Father Carter wrote:
“Since Jesus had table fellowship with social outcasts and sinners, those rejected by the religious establishment of his time, I consider myself to have been most fully a Jesuit, a ‘companion of Jesus,’ when I came out publicly as a gay man, one of the social rejects of my time. It was only by our coming out that society’s negative stereotypes would be overcome and we would gain social acceptance.”

Rest in Peace, Father Carter. You've earned it.

Stand Up And Be Counted

When LGBT Americans receive their Census forms this month, we will have an historic opportunity to smash stereotypes, even though the form ignores a large portion of the LGBT population. We have the chance to finally be counted; to finally count.

“Without data, you have no community portrait, and without a portrait, you have no needs, you have no identity, you have no funding; the census has always had a civil rights component to it,” says Jaime Grant, the director of the Policy Institute at The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force [NGLTF].

The Census, a once-a-decade snapshot of the U.S. population, determines the number of seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives, and census data guides the distribution of $400 billion in federal funding for schools, hospitals and public safety.

For minority groups like LGBT Americans, the census is even more important. Census data can be used to counter stereotypes, win court cases and break legal barriers. “The more invisible we are, the more powerless we are, the less represented and the less understood,” Grant says.

The history of LGBT Americans and the census is mixed. For the first 200 years of the census, LGBT people were ignored, but in 1990, when the federal government began counting unmarried, heterosexual couples, lesbians and gays could finally make their presence known by checking the box on the census form for “unmarried partners,” and then answering the question about their gender.

That first time we were counted, about 190,000 same-sex couples revealed themselves on the census, but by the next census, in 2000, about 600,000 same-sex couples came out on their census forms.

The findings were startling, particularly for those who thought gays were all childless, white yuppies. Same-sex couples were discovered to be of all races, and to live in every state and nearly every county, including the most rural and conservative.

For the first time, we were like the American Express card: we were everywhere we wanted to be.

And this year’s census will be the most pro-LGBT in history. For the first time, same-sex couples who refer to themselves as husband and wife will be counted, and the results will be reported separately from heterosexual couples. The number of same-sex couples that identify as unmarried partners will also be counted and reported.

But there will be some problems, too. While the census counts same-sex couples, it does not identify those who are widowed, divorced or single as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. And transgendered people will be counted as the gender with which they identify, but will not be identified as transgendered. The form does not include a question about sexual orientation or gender identity.

Still, it's a step. It's a chance to be officially counted and have our numbers known. It will show those who think we are nothing more than a dangerous, sanctity-defying minority, that we are here, we are queer, and to get used to counting us in.

Head over HERE to get a Queer The Census sticker to close your Census envelope before sending it back.