Posted on 05/28/2008 6:38:36 PM PDT by Comparative Advantage
A state lawmaker from New Albany backed a bill this year that would give employment and housing protection to Ohio's gays and transsexuals.
That took some courage because the Senate leaders of his party, the Republicans, have no patience for the legislation. And similar bills never have received much attention in Ohio, let alone on-the-record hearings.
But Sen. David Goodman said his active endorsement of Senate Bill 305 was a no-brainer after a conversation in March with his father, a prominent Harvard-trained lawyer. That day, he reminded his son why Jewish law firms first opened in Columbus: No one else would hire Jewish lawyers at the time.
That sort of discrimination is illegal now in Ohio -- unless you're gay.
Later that day in March, Goodman received a call from a friend who is pushing for Senate Bill 305 and House Bill 502, companion measures that were introduced that month. His friend asked him to co-sponsor the Senate bill.
"How could I say 'No' after what my father had told me about my own family's past?" Goodman said.
Gay-rights opponents still carry the day in Ohio, so those of us on the other side still celebrate even a few Senate hearings on the bill. But those days might be numbered.
Another generation of voters -- and the people they elect to represent them -- will be taking over in a few years. If the polls are any indication, they won't tolerate intolerance.
Research and exit-poll data studied by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement suggest that youth support for equal protections for gay people crosses partisan, ideological and religious lines.
The same data indicate that, across the board, at least 85 percent of people ages 15-25 support equal protection in housing and employment.
Eighty-five percent. That same group now falls within the age range of 19-29.
State Rep. Dan Stewart, a Columbus Democrat, has worked on this issue since he was a Senate legislative aide a decade ago. Now sponsor of the House bill, Stewart said the hearings are a good sign because they "advance the education and the cause."
His colleagues are getting smarter and better educated about the issue, and better prepared to respond to the form letters sent by those who say that equal protection is somehow a "special status" when it comes to gays and transsexuals.
And those who say that such laws will bring a flood of lawsuits are just plain wrong, according to a 2002 report on 13 states by the U.S. General Accounting Office.
In the end, the only valid opposition is personal. No one, for example, can change the mind of the angry older man who called to criticize me for my support of gay rights, calling me an embarrassment to journalism.
He'll take that hate with him to the grave. And tolerance will bloom in his wake.
Ann Fisher is a Dispatch Metro columnist. She can be reached at 614-461-8759 or by e-mail. Check out her blog Furthermore at blog.dispatch.com/ann/.
afisher@dispatch.com
Gays do not reproduce. Liberals barely reproduce. Conservative “homophobes” have large families.
Do the math.
Somebody predicted in the 1960's that marijuana and other recreational drugs would all be legal by now because everyone who used them in college would become lawyers and legislators and they would legalize it in order to continue using.
Having been born and raised in Massachusetts, I understand your question. Up there, men drive Subarus, too. I've lived in Ohio for the past 16 years, and the truth is, in the MidWest, Subaru=Lesbian or at least extreme tree-hugging, abortion-loving, Birkenstock-wearing female.
How can you have Civil Rights if you are not counted in the Census?
Are you sure you are posting to the right person?
I sure don’t uderstand your queston/post
What are you talking about? Gays reproduce all the time.
Gays are incapable of reproducing "together" with their partners, without including a third party to provide the sperm/egg/womb. Heterosexuals do not have this little problem.
Gays do not have that problem either. I work with a lesbian who has four children with her ex-husband. They are the biological children of her and her husband, and were conceived naturally. There are countless gay people like her. I don’t know where this comes from — that gay people can’t reproduce. They have the same parts that heterosexuals have.
What part of WITH THEIR GAY PARTNERS don't you understand?
I did not say "gays" can't reproduce in a heterosexual relationship.
Uh, you said “Gays don’t reproduce”, then tried to qualify it. Whatever.
When they are breeding in heterosexual relationships they're not gay, dumbass.
Classy.
Antoninus, I agree with you but unfortunately God-given is not in the Constitution. While you and I and 200,000,000 Americans agree with these concepts, a handful of lawyers can open up our entire society like a can of sardines.
I wish it were some other way. Jay Sekulow, who is one of the most prominent lawyers fighting the battle against the atheists, believes the same thing. There is simply no long term legal defense for our practices with a constitutional amendment protecting marriage, gender, age of consent and anything else which represents our cultural values.
While we personally believe that violations of Natural Law ‘should’ be unconstitutional, one of the benefits of the Constitution is that is leaves many things up to the people to decide. But since family, marriage and morality are not mentioned in the Constitution, we are relying upon our own better angels and not judges to enforce them.
As a newbie, with your attitude, my first instinct is to classify you as a potential troll.
She’s right.
Definitely a troll. ibtz?
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