[Vision2020] Gay Rights are Simply Equal Rights

[Donovan Arnold]

Good thing she wasn't a police officer in Moscow. Her partner would have really been SOL with our city council. 
  
  _DJA

Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:  >From today's (March 8, 2006) Spokesman Review with a spcial thanks to
Christopher Ott -

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Gay rights are simply equal rights 

March 8, 2006

Lt. Laurel Hester, a 49-year-old police officer from New Jersey, died of
cancer in February after 23 years on the job. Cancer was not her only
battle. She waged a long legal fight to pass $13,000 worth of pension
benefits to her surviving partner. Without it, she feared her partner could
lose the home they shared.

Hester won her case at the eleventh hour. County officials with the power to
let her do it finally gave in after a deathbed plea and the publicity it
brought.

But Hester's need to fight so hard in the last days of her life shows how
high the odds can be stacked against gay couples. All too often we have to
fight for basic protections that others take for granted, and we are forced
to do it in the middle of life's most difficult and tragic situations.
 
Hester's case also shows how shallow the arguments from opponents of gay
rights really are.

Antigay activists like to argue that they oppose "special rights for
homosexuals." But how is providing a same-sex partner the benefits you
earned considered "special rights" if you are allowed to do the same thing
for an opposite-sex partner?

Opponents of equality like to argue that they are defending the institution
of marriage. But whose marriage is protected by putting obstacles in the way
of people who are suffering and dying, and who just want to take care of the
people they love?

And when you get down to it, how many straight people really want to see
such heartless discrimination continue in the name of defending their
marriages?

If our country is going to stay true to the ideal that everyone should be
treated equally, there is only one way forward. The laws and restrictions
that leave gay and lesbian couples out in the cold have to be swept away at
every level.

Offering health insurance coverage to the partners of gay and lesbian
employees is a small step forward.

Civil unions, which offer a few of the protections available to married
couples, are at least a move in the right direction.

But the ultimate answer is complete legal equality for all couples, whether
gay or straight, and that means the right to marry. Gay couples who take on
the responsibilities of marriage also deserve the protections of marriage.

Lt. Hester protected the public for 23 years, and the public should protect
the rights of people like her. These are not special rights. They are equal
rights.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in
Albany, Georgia and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the
Civil Rights Movement.  Many of these courageous men and women were fighting
for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and
I salute their contributions."

- Coretta Scott King (March 30, 1998)



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