Word: civilizations
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
South of there, in Colorado, Christian Coalition types got together several years ago to defeat a bill that would guarantee the plain civil rights of homosexuals--you know, you can't lose your job or your home because you're gay, that kind of thing. They misrepresented it as special treatment, and put it about that gay people have a hidden agenda (like the Protocols of the Elder Zion that anti-Semites cite) to destroy the American family. They--we, I mean--are sinful, immoral, sick. The Christian Coalition had Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. '53 come...
...been a long road from there to here. Largely because of opposition from unions, blacks and church groups, it was not until 1983 that a gay organization, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, was admitted to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, one of Washington's most liberal legislative coalitions. It was 11 years more before the group took a consensus position on anything involving gay rights. In 1994 it backed a modest change in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation while permitting an exemption for churches...
...corner of the country struggled with the most difficult and radical part of that agenda: the idea that same-sex relationships should not be morally, religiously or legally any different from opposite-sex ones. Marriage is lush with symbolism--pastors and vows, rings and rice--it's the civil heart through which the blood of state and religion both flow. "Going for marriage is like shooting for the moon," says Elizabeth Birch, head of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay political group. "It's our hardest issue, but success would bring the greatest rewards...
...campaign has got bitter in recent days. The same-sex marriage advocates occasionally demonize their opponents as Christian conservatives in thrall to Pat Robertson. But Rosehill is a lapsed Protestant whose daughter is a lesbian. ("I want her to have every civil right," says Rosehill. "But same-sex marriage is not a civil right.") Rosehill says her side can win without resorting to explicitly anti-gay rhetoric, and she says she told the national Christian Coalition she wouldn't work with a local affiliate group she found "homophobic." Still, the campaign's most quoted and colorful character is strategist Michael...
...also underestimates the importance of non-violent social protest. He warns that public demonstrations such as Harvard's gathering on National Coming Out Day only "hurt [homosexuals'] chances for public acceptance." But people's prejudices don't go away on their own. Throughout our history, most notably during the Civil Rights movement, public demonstrations have been the catalyst for the promotion of equality and the breakdown of discrimination...