Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 11:46:42 CDT From: bond@comm.mot.com (Allan Bond) BTW, Oak Park is a near western suburb of Chicago. ----- Begin Included Message ----- I've obtained a copy online of Eric Zorn's column in today's Chicago Tribune. Feel free to write him in email (below). No doubt he will receive a bunch of hate calls and he could use the support. : : ZORN: Citing a wrong to block a right : : By Eric Zorn (ericzorn@aol.com) : : Chicago Tribune Columnist : : Someday we're going to be faintly embarrassed by what the Oak Park Village : Board did this week. : : : At the conclusion of five hours of public speeches and more than an hour of : deliberation, the trustees voted 7-0 early Tuesday to extend fringe benefits : to same-sex partners of gay and lesbian municipal employees. At the same time : they defeated 4-3 a proposal that would have created a voluntary, symbolic : local registry of all such partnerships. : : : It will seem odd, when the years give us perspective, that such wrangling and : delicate delineations were really necessary in 1994, even as it now seems odd : that we had to amend the Constitution in 1920 to grant women the write to : vote, that we had to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to tell us in 1954 that : public schools should not be segregated, and that Congress had to pass a : Civil Rights Act in 1964 that outlawed racial discrimination in public : accommodations. : : : Were we once really that narrowminded, that insular and that hateful? Were : our ideas of justice and equality really that small? : : : It is to blush. : : : "What is striking to me, historically, is how similar the rhetoric has been : of the objectors," said Northwestern University political science professor : Adolph Reed, who has written extensively on the civil rights and women's : rights movements. "In all cases, opponents of the expansion of rights justify : their objections on the basis of natural law and morality. They also tend to : cite scripture." : : : Those objectors among the 101 speakers who addressed the Oak Park trustees : blasted gays as "immoral" and "the counterfeits of genetic engineering," and : referred to "this abomination of a lifestyle." "Abomination" was the word of : the hour, according to accounts of the meeting, as it recalls the favorite : Biblical passage of those who rail against homosexuality, chapter 18, verse : 22 of Levictitus: "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an : abomination." : : : Suffice it to say that this particular book--with its obsession with animal : sacrifice, expressions of disgust at the uncleanliness of menstruating women, : approval of the death penalty for blasphemers, acceptance of human slavery, : endorsement of torture and vilification of the disabled--is not otherwise : considered a reliable legislative guide in contemporary society. : : : The Bible's relevance in such debates is further clouded by how one can find : in it justification for any number of practices most of us frown on, : including cannibalism (Deuteronomy 28), incest (Genesis 19), genocide : (Numbers 31), self-mutilation (Matthew 18) and the execution of Sabbath : breakers (Exodus 31). : : : God may despise homosexuals, I wouldn't presume to guess. He certainly made a : lot of them though--2 or 3 percent of the population according to the recent : estimates. Who and how they love may not appeal to you, but it doesn't really : harm you either, and learning to tolerate graciously such differences with : others is part of growing up and being a good citizen. : : : That still only a handful of communities nationwide are making still only : small steps toward recognizing this will be as curious to us in the future as : we now find, say, the debate in the 1940s over integration of the military. : We'll find it odd that Oak Park trustees were bold enough to make theirs the : first town in Illinois to extend benefits to the partners of gay employees, : but not bold enough to establish the symbolic : registry. : : : Ultimately, such registries should not only be created, but legally : formalized. Call them "gay marriages" or, if the term offends, "same-sex : partnership contracts." Either way, two people who love one another ought to : be able to make a formal, legal commitment to one another that entails the : responsibilities and benefits of marriage, and the rest of us ought to : realize that this poses absolutely no threat to the sanctity, importance and : endurance of our more conventional unions. : : : In fact, to the extent that gay promiscuity poses risks to society and legal, : same-sex commitments would dampen such behavior, gay marriage would promote : both health and community stability and be a benefit to the rest of us. : : : One day it will be allowed because it's fair, and this nation is one of the : few in history bold enough to be built on the idea of fairness. : : : And for that we should feel nothing but pride. ----- End Included Message -----