GOP Gays and the 'Finkelstein Phenomenon' ( Robert Scheer)

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http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer19apr19,0,2839125.column
ROBERT SCHEER

GOP Gays and the 'Finkelstein Phenomenon'

Robert Scheer

April 19, 2005

The issue arguably cost John Kerry the presidential election, and Kansas has just become the 18th state to constitutionally ban it, yet there are reasons to feel optimistic about the granting of full civil rights to people who have chosen a life partner of the same sex.

Even as the heartland state was enshrining bigotry in its constitution, a bipartisan legislative majority in Connecticut this month approved same-sex civil unions — and, unlike the laws allowing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and civil unions in Vermont, this one was not in response to a court order. ....



..... "To say that all men and all women are treated the same in that each may not marry someone of the same gender misses the point," Kramer wrote, dismissing the state's argument that tradition provided sufficient grounds for such discrimination.

As it has been for racial minorities, women and immigrants, the progressive acquisition of civil rights is marked by partial victories, regional setbacks and flare-ups of naked hostility and even violence. Yet the pattern is clear: The breakthrough Connecticut legislation eventually will be followed by other states and the nation as a whole because it is so obviously an extension of rights that all citizens in a democracy deserve.