National NOW Times >> Summer 2006  >> Article

Lesbian Rights: From Legislation to Action

By Melody Drnach, Action Vice President

Legislation is moving on Capitol Hill to write discrimination into our Constitution and NOW activists are responding. Majority leader Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has vowed to push the marriage discrimination amendment to a full U.S. Senate vote—just in time to rally the social conservative base for the midterm election season this fall. As calls for impeachment grow, George W. Bush's approval ratings continue to dive toward a single-digit, and public approval of Congress spirals ever downward, conservatives in Congress are panicking—and they think pandering is their only salvation.

The majority of people do not want to take the historic step of amending the Constitution to narrow the rights of "We the People" by codifying discrimination against same-sex couples. At the same time, most people do want to end hate crimes and end employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. NOW activists will be sending messages to members of the Senate about all of these issues (details below), making visits to senators in their district offices, and coming to Washington, D.C. to share NOW's message that a woman's right to independence and self-determination includes the right to define and express her own sexuality and to choose her own lifestyle, free from discrimination and harassment.

Women and men have a right to equal treatment under the law and that includes the civil right to marry the person they love. Join the Equal Marriage Task Force in workshops at the Young Feminist Summit and National Conference that will help you build your skills. Stop by to share your story about why you believe in equal marriage at the story collection booth. Watch your e-mail for action alerts and your mail for notices from your chapter leaders calling for action on the following legislation: The Federal Marriage Amendment, S.J. Res. 1 (Allard, R-Colo.) and H.J. Res. 39 (Lungren, R-Calif.) would outlaw same-sex marriages and same-sex civil unions and codify that discrimination in our Constitution. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-4 in November 2005 to send this proposed constitutional amendment to the full Senate. Majority Leader Frist has announced that he hopes to have a vote on this in June or July of 2006. Because 67 votes are needed to pass a constitutional amendment and only 48 Senators supported it when it was last voted on in 2004, it will be difficult for opponents of equal marriage to "win" this vote. Instead, they will hold a roll call of this discriminatory measure and use it as to batter Democratic Senators who are up for re-election this fall with ugly hate messages about their vote. Marriage equality is a very important part of the effort to end discrimination, and any attempt to replace marriage equality with second-class "civil unions" will fall short of our nation's commitment to civil rights for all.

The Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (Hate Crimes), H.R. 2662 (Conyers, D-Mich.) and S.1145 (Kennedy, D-Mass.) would provide federal assistance to states and local jurisdictions to prosecute hate crimes, including those committed on the basis of sexual orientation, gender or disability. The House version of the bill, which specifically includes sexual identity, was passed in September 2005 by a vote of 223-199 as an amendment to a child predator and sex offender registry bill, H.R.3132. The hate crimes amendment was stripped from the sex offender registry bill by House Judiciary Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) in March under a suspension of the House rules, and sent to the Senate. Senators supportive of the hate crimes legislation are attempting to include the Senate version of LLEEA as an amendment when the Senate votes on the popular sex offender bill in the coming months. It is important that any final "hate crimes" bill include the broadest range of coverage, including gender and gender identity.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is in the final drafting stages of the new version and will be introduced soon. It would prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and provide basic protection to ensure fairness in the workplace for individuals who are currently denied equal protection under the law. Currently federal law provides basic legal protection against employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, national origin or disability, but not sexual orientation or gender identity and gender expression. ENDA would remedy this oversight.

Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act, S. 368 (Lautenberg, D-N.J.) and H.R. 2553 (Lee, D-Calif.) would permit states to receive federal funding without having to promise to teach an exclusive abstinence-only curriculum. Abstinence-until-marriage programs are ineffective for young people in general, but particularly ignore LGBT youth, the realities of their lives and their critical health information needs. REAL would include science-driven information about the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act, H.R. 475 (Maloney, D-N.Y.) would benefit many workers by amending the federal law to permit a worker who is covered by FMLA to take a temporary, job-protected unpaid leave to care for a domestic partner or same-sex married partner, as well as a parent-in-law, adult child, sibling or grandparent who has a serious health conditions. The 2000 Census reported that there are 594,391 same-sex households in the country living in 99.3 percent of all counties in the United States, yet many LGBT workers simply cannot take advantage of FMLA because their life partners are not recognized under federal law. It is very important that any workplace laws or policies include legal domestic partnerships and LGBT workers' families.

The Uniting American Families Act, S. 1278 (Leahy, D-Vt.) and H.R. 3006 (Nadler, D-N.Y.) would help remedy the injustice in federal immigration law where same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and permanent residents cannot be sponsored by their partners for family-based immigration because they are not considered "spouses." Many same-sex bi-national couples are kept apart or torn apart as a result of this heartless rule. Even bi-national couples who have entered into marriages, civil unions or other legally recognized relationships in their home states still cannot sponsor their spouse or partner for immigration purposes.

The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, H.R. 3267 (Frank, D-Mass.),would grant same- and opposite-sex domestic partners of federal employees the same benefits currently available to legal spouses of federal employees.

Military Readiness Enhancement Act, H.R. 1059 (Meehan, D-Mass.) would repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and permit lesbian, gay and bisexual soldiers to serve openly in the armed services. It is estimated that at least 65,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans are currently serving in the U.S. military and an additional 10,000 or more have already been discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

NOW Senior Policy Analyst Pat Reuss contributed research to this report.