GAY AND LESBIAN FAMILIES

Analysis

Protecting Gay and Lesbian Families

No issue generates more controversy or passionate debate than the battle over whether gay and lesbian families should have the same protections as other American families. It's important to look beyond the rhetoric to examine reality. Gay and lesbian families deserve and need the same rights, benefits and responsibilities as all other American families.

The radical right cleverly uses the term gay marriage as a way to scare Americans into opposing basic protections for gay and lesbian families. They do not differentiate between a civil marriage and a religious marriage. Let us be very clear, we are fighting only for civil protections, nothing more, nothing less. We do not want to infringe on a religion's imperative and traditions. Any religion should be able to define marriage however it wishes. That means enacting civil marriage for gays and lesbians will not force any religious denomination to recognize gay and lesbian relationships. Some religion denominations undoubtedly will and have chosen to bless and recognize these loving unions including the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Religious Society of Friends (or Quakers). However, we respect the importance of religious freedom and believe each church should be able to decide this issue without government interference. That is why our nation has a separation of church and state.

Gay and lesbian Americans will not achieve total equality until our families have the same protections as every other American family. As long as the government can discriminate against our relationships, we are not equal. The United States General Accounting Office reports that there are 1,138 rights, benefits, protections, and responsibilities associated with civil marriage in the federal code. Many heterosexual couples take these things for granted, but gay and lesbian families live everyday without these basic guarantees such as: Social Security spousal benefits, the ability to be included in a family policy of health, as well as the rights to visit a sick partner in the hospital, make medical decisions for a same-sex partner should he or she become incapacitated, and have medical leave to care for an ailing spouse.

This government sanctioned discrimination against an entire class of people is un-American. It goes against our nation's evolving and expanding definition of freedom. Equality under the law is the foundation of our modern democracy. All Americans are promised the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That phrase loses its meaning if a person does not have a right to marry the one they love or must constantly worry about maintaining their job to support their family.   

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