Imagine. Those who oppose equal rights for gays and lesbians are quick to worry that theirs are being trampled; that God will not love us anymore if we do not hate gays and lesbians. They fret God will strike Alaska stupid. (In my humble view, after reading some of the comments in the newspaper, He -- or She -- has a good start on that already.)
A couple of things set off the hubbub: The American Civil Liberties Union -- a protector of specific parts of the Constitution when it is not busy representing outfits such as the North American Man-Boy Love Association -- sued Anchorage and the state on behalf of a few same-sex partners who believe they are unfairly treated in the tax-exemption arena. The ACLU seems to believe the status quo runs afoul of the Alaska Constitution's pesky equal protection provisions. The ACLU wants same-sex partners treated the same as married couples. Go figure.
"We would like all committed couples in Alaska to be able to say their state recognizes their commitment to each other and their state believes in equality for all of us," plaintiff Gayle Schuh lamented in a news conference.
It may take a while. Alaska does not recognize marriages between same-sex partners. Voters stormed to the polls in 1998 to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and woman. A judge could change that.
The second trigger was a federal judge striking down California's voter-approved ban on gay marriage -- adopted as Proposition 8 in 2008 -- a case likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Indeed," the judge wrote in his ruling, "the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples."
Superior? It leaves me wondering why gays and lesbians are forced to fight so hard for rights the rest of us take for granted. How did we come to believe -- and blindly accept -- that gays and lesbians have fewer rights? How did we start being comfortable thinking of them as lesser people, second-class citizens at best?
As a conservative, I wonder at those who think the Constitution takes sides, picks winners and losers. Count me among those who believe it protects us all equally; that it means what it says and exists to provide equal opportunity and freedom from an oppressive government. No one group has more rights than any other. I've read the Alaska Constitution, and nowhere does it say, "except for gay people or anybody different," and I'm here to report the U.S. Constitution does not either, at least the copy I read. In no place did I find, "but not gays or people we are not particularly fond of."
Too many of us believe our prejudices somehow trump those documents; that our hatreds are somehow codified in them and therefore acceptable; that some of us, incredibly, do not deserve the same protections as others.
Some believe that enshrining religious beliefs and taboos in a constitution is not only acceptable but necessary. Face it, in this country you are allowed to hate anyone -- as long as you do not act on your hatred. You are allowed to think what you want, feel what you want, resent, loathe or despise anybody who strikes your fancy. You can be prejudiced. You can be a jerk. But you have no more rights than anybody else -- straight or gay.
Too often, too many of us forget that. We use our differences and our fear of gays and lesbians to demean them, at least constitutionally. We have no right.
No matter the outcome of the ACLU lawsuit against the city and state, or the California federal court decision, gays and lesbians are here -- and have been since the dawn of time. They are part of our community. Now they are demanding the rights we have denied them, and it is increasingly difficult, even for bigots, to justify denying gays and lesbians the very rights we take for granted.
Their time is coming soon. Get used to the idea. We'll all be better for it.
Paul Jenkins is editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.
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