Current Indiana law does not protect people from being fired, or denied housing, simply because they are gay or transgendered. When this fact comes up in one of my classes, it usually stuns my students, most of whom were born after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They regard civil rights laws as part of the natural order of things, and even those who are disapproving of homosexuality are appalled that people could actually lose their jobs or homes because they are gay.
Continue reading “The Time Has Come”
Category Archives: Gay Rights
Respect and the Supreme Court
By the time this column is printed, the stunning Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas will be over six weeks old, and the implications will just be sinking in.
Continue reading “Respect and the Supreme Court”
Separate But Equal
The recent announcement that the New York school system intends to open the Harvey Milk School–a separate high school for gay teens–raised some troubling issues.
Continue reading “Separate But Equal”
Single Issue
As Congress reconvenes after the Christmas/New Year holiday, we are told that anti-abortion legislation will be a high priority. Now that Republicans are firmly in charge of both houses of Congress, they intend to enact laws further restricting a woman?s right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
Continue reading “Single Issue”
The Culture Wars
A few years back, I read an interesting article (I think it was in The New Yorker) predicting the ultimate marginalization of the Religious Right and the victory of social liberalism and toleration. The article acknowledged a string of right-wing electoral victories, but based its prediction on the values of popular culture–precisely those values that cause apoplexy in people like Bill Bennett and John Ashcroft. The thesis of the article was that popular culture is a predictor of political change.
Continue reading “The Culture Wars”