But in terms of the LGBT community, we continue to fight for an end to employment discrimination. So he did DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act). That gave Bob Dole the idea that he could help his presidential campaign by getting federal legislation against it. In 1995, the Hawaiian Supreme Court looked like it was going to authorize same-sex marriage. Marriage, on the other hand, you can argue is a constitutional right. No one claims that there is a constitutional right for a private company not to hire you. To get employment discrimination protection, you need a positive statute. Marriage became an issue because it came up in the courts. We always put employment discrimination first, legislatively. Why did marriage become the issue, instead of employment? So they come up with “Oh it would be bad for society. The Republicans are still against us, overwhelmingly, on every substantive issue, but they do understand the need to not look prejudiced. Even then, it was a good sign in that he felt the need to back down. At which point my mother agreed to say that in the 59 years during which her name was Elsie Frank, no one had ever called her Elsie Fag. His fallback was that he was trying to say Frank, but he mispronounced it. And then tried to say that he didn’t say it. It was when Dick Armey, newly elected majority leader when Republicans took over the Congress in 1995, referred to me as Barney Fag. What is the most homophobic moment that you experienced? The next time you have a Democratic House, Senate and president, you will get a good anti-discrimination law protecting people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. ![]() And, very important: You can win your rights legally, as we have seen with African-Americans, but attitudinal prejudice can still be a problem. The likelihood of substantial religious-based loopholes to these laws is very slight. In America, link up the moral argument with the profit motive, and you have a pretty tough coalition. The business community has essentially told the people who want to mistreat us that it is interfering with their ability to make profits. ![]() The other is to say that you can’t have a religious exemption from anti-discrimination rules. The major issue, which has to be done at the federal level: protection against job discrimination. How does the LGBT movement convey the idea that there are still a host of other issues to confront?
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