[Vision2020] My gay agenda (again)

[melynda at moscow.com]

Gary asserts that straights are, if anything, less protected than gays 
under the law.  Actually, that's not quite right.

1.  At present, in Idaho, it is perfectly legal to discriminate in 
employment against gays for no reason other than their sexual 
orientation.  Gary is free not only to refuse to hire gay people, but to 
fire an employee solely on account of his or her sexual orientation, and 
will face no legal problem whatsoever.  The same is not true for straight 
people.

2.  Sexual orientation is not protected under Idaho hate and bias laws.  
There's no "extra" penalty for gay-bashing. The hate crime laws *do* 
protect people of all races: it's just as illegal to go out looking for 
white people to bash as it is Latinos, Arabs, or Blacks.  As for the 
added penalty, it's there because there's something particularly, 
egregiously awful about assaulting someone simply because they belong to 
some group, just as there are worse penalties for first-degree murder 
than for involuntary manslaughter.  (There aren't many straight-bashing 
reported nationally--but get a load of the UCR stats on gay-bashing.)

3.  There are more than one thousand legal rights and responsibilities 
associated with marriage which are specifically limited to straight 
people (says the GAO). Every drunken fool who marries a relative stranger 
in Las Vegas and gets a divorce six weeks later has those rights and 
responsibilities.  After fifteen years of partnership--five years longer 
than the average first marriage in the U.S.--I can't get those rights and 
responsibilities; in fact, I'm specifically prohibited by Idaho law from 
getting them.

I could go on and on . . . but I won't. Gay and lesbian people are not 
equally treated under the law.  You may be glad this is the case, but 
please don't add false information about the special privileges we enjoy 
to the indignities we already experience.

Melynda
Huskey

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