Taking the next step for equality
December 16, 2009
http://socialistworker.org/2009/12/16/next-step-for-equality (http://socialistworker.org/2009/12/16/next-step-for-equality)
Community activists and students from five area colleges came together December 8 in Amherst, Mass., to hear presentations on the "state of LGBT inequality." The meeting was organized by the Western Massachusetts chapter of Equality Across America and took up a range of issues, including LGBT bashing and hate crimes legislation; employment discrimination and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act; the "don't ask, don't tell" policy"; transgender inequality; same-sex marriage; and the need to change a section of Massachusetts law that associates homosexuality with pedophilia.
Gary Lapon, a founding member of the chapter and member of the International Socialist Organization, gave this talk titled "Why we need a movement."
THESE ARE difficult times. It has been more than 40 years since the Stonewall Rebellion launched the modern LGBT movement, and there is still pervasive social and institutional inequality.
However, the laws on the books are out of sync with public opinion. Some 89 percent of people in the U.S. oppose employment discrimination against LGBT people; two-thirds favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military; and over 50 percent support same-sex partnerships with the same rights and benefits as marriage. While only 40 percent of people support same-sex marriage, this is one-third more than the 30 percent who supported it five years ago.