We Must Support Equal Rights for All

Monterey County Herald Guest Commentary Sunday, March 7, 2004               By MATT FRIDAY

It is our turn to grasp an extraordinary opportunity: Tell others that gays and lesbians are and should be treated as equals.

We are witnessing a historical endeavor at this time, this week, today. It might be useful to give recent events in the office of San Francisco's mayor some context.

Hundreds of corrupt, unjust and simply unkind laws have been passed over the years against groups such as women, blacks, Asians, the Irish, Italians, American Indians and gays, to name only a few. Some laws withheld rights that others enjoyed; other rights simply were not offered.

Among voters and the representatives for whom they voted, such institutionalized injustices were considered natural, even necessary. Animus and ignorance moved some to hateful acts, and widespread acquiescence allowed the general public to believe such contempt and injustice were acceptable. Uncounted regional, local, state and federal laws against individuals and groups across the land met with too little protest for a very long time.

While there were other times of great social change, it is perhaps the 1950s and '60s that most of us remember best as a period of change in substantive and measurable forms. During these decades, when apartheid was both policy and the law in many states, a few elected officials stood with those who were asking, even demanding, equal rights. Those few leaders resisted the "common wisdom," which over the years had denied the familiar rites of marriage to some groups.

They resisted the too common urge to stereotype behaviors of these and other groups in ugly and deplorable language. Those few leaders, standing with the many others who did not hold public office and voluntarily gave countless hours of their lives in the cause of justice and equal rights, refused to close the doors of schools, build "separate but equal" facilities or otherwise endorse the spiritual impoverishment of a people.

The still-widening path of democracy recommended in the Constitution by America's founders has served to redefine and refine democracy through centuries of social change and betterment in countries around the world.

Now it is our turn to grasp an extraordinary opportunity: Tell others that gays and lesbians are and should be treated as equals. More than asking only for the separation of church and state, we are asking those who have fears and prejudice to transcend them, to find the mutual good in fairness and equality. From all, we are asking for support, not just for families with gay or lesbian head(s)-of-household but also for those who lead and represent for the benefit of all Americans and our country's visitors.

It is time for our leaders and elected officials to stand with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. If you are a public official empowered to marry others and represent a municipality or body politic that certifies the same, you too are challenged now to take your place in history -- for those who cry with the voice of your forebears, children, siblings, those we've lost in each generation's fight for freedom and equality, and for the advancement of democracy.

You are very much a part of the process and its outcome: Let us move forward together.

Give us equal rights now.

Matt Friday is a former Chairman
of the American Civil Liberties Union-Monterey County Chapter.