Get Busy. Get Equal.

By Keith Boykin, in politics
Thursday, July 3 2003, 12:09AM

I cried when I read the Supreme Court's decision in the Texas sodomy case. Not because the highest court in the country finally recognized that gay relationships are valid. I cried because gays and lesbians may finally believe it themselves.

No doubt, the decision by the court was astounding. The court's repudiation of the infamous 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick case was virtually absolute. "Bowers was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today," the court wrote.

In the most striking line in the court's opinion, Justice Kennedy wrote: "When sexuality finds overt expression in intimate conduct with another person, the conduct can be but one element in a personal bond that is more enduring." Thus, for the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that gay relationships are not just about sex.

Coming from a Reagan appointee on a court considered to be conservative, that line of reasoning has many commentators asking if gay marriage is next. It's not.

What's next is a long, bitter season of backlash as conservative organizers send out thousands of urgent fundraising letters and raise millions of dollars to fight the last remaining battles of the so-called culture war.

The battle over sodomy has been won, but the battle over gay adoption, gay marriage, and gays in the military is just now heating up.

Many have compared the Texas case to the high court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed racial segregation in schools. That's a fair comparison, but it's important to remember that Brown didn't change the country overnight. Nearly 50 years after that decision, the courts and the country are still wrestling with the issue of racial diversity in education.

It took 10 years after Brown before Congress finally outlawed racial segregation in employment, and even 10 years after that law, the country was still fighting the race issue on the question of busing. Just this year — only three days before it recognized the right to privacy for gays and lesbians — the court found itself bitterly divided over the issue of race and education.

We have a lot of work to do. Despite the Supreme Court decision on sodomy, no federal laws protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in employment, housing or public accommodations. Some jurisdictions still ban or restrict gays and lesbians from adopting children. The military does not permit those who are openly gay, lesbian or bisexual to serve in the armed forces. And same-sex marriage is illegal in all 50 states of the union.

Don't expect the Supreme Court's ruling to change any of that. Although it did acknowledge the validity of gay relationships, this court is not ready to validate gay marriage. The Texas case "does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter," the court wrote.

But there is hope. As Justice Kennedy explained, "times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress. As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom." That's a call to action for gays and lesbians.

So what can you do? I spoke to James Esseks, the litigation director of the ACLU's lesbian and gay rights project, for suggestions. Esseks co-authored an amicus brief filed by the ACLU that the Supreme Court quoted in its majority opinion. He offered practical advice.

"Go to your employer and ask for a nondiscrimination policy," he said. "Go to your employer and ask for health care benefits to cover domestic partners. Go to your local city and ask for the same thing. Get involved in the state level if you can. Go to your school board and ask for a safe schools policy and ensure that the students there can form a gay-student alliance if they want to. Ensure that the school has a way to deal with harassment of kids that are gay or perceived to be gay or perceived to be gender deviant."

Esseks believes that all of these goals will be easier to achieve now that Lawrence v. Texas is law. There's a lot more you can do too. Now is the perfect time to write a letter to your members of Congress and ask them to support the Employment Non Discrimination Act. Make a contribution to groups like Servicemembers Legal Defense Network that are fighting the ban on gays in the military. And perhaps most importantly, come out to your friends and family and co-workers.

It took 17 years for the court to overturn its antigay decision in Bowers v. Hardwick. We can't wait another 17 years for the Supreme Court to validate the rest of our rights. We have to go out and win them ourselves. We have a rare opportunity to keep the positive momentum going. The ACLU summed up the opportunity in four words in a new campaign on its website: "Get Busy. Get Equal."

See the ACLU's website, Get Busy, Get Equal

Comments (6) reveal