Second Opinion / COMMENTARY FROM OTHER MEDIA : LESBIAN NEWS : Gays and Civil Rights
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We must boycott Colorado.
That state voted 53% to 47% to amend its Constitution to provide that there be no protected status based on homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation. That amendment, crafted by our right-wing opponents to sound as even-handed and harmless as possible, threatens all our lives. When it takes effect next month, it invalidates lesbian/gay civil rights ordinances in Aspen, Boulder and Denver.
The Colorado defeat differs from other votes in two important aspects. It’s the first time that a state’s Constitution has been amended specially to prevent laws from being passed to guarantee equal rights for lesbians and gay men. And its passage has provided right-wing, anti-gay conservative activists with a winning strategy.
We know that what we want is not “special rights”; we simply want equal rights--rights heterosexuals take for granted, like the right not to be fired for being who we are, the right to walk the streets without being attacked. But most straights don’t realize the realities of our lives, and many of them can be sold a bill of goods about what we want.
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