Word: gays
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Connecticut justices spend most of the remainder of the 85-page decision explaining how gays have been victimized. The court felt this was necessary in order to classify gays as a "quasi-suspect class" entitled to heightened protection under the state constitution. And so there is page after page on how powerless gays and lesbians are. "For centuries," the justices wrote, people have disliked gays. "Until not long ago, gay persons were widely regarded as deviants ... [who were] mentally ill ... [G]ay persons also face virulent homophobia that rests on nothing more than feelings of revulsion ... Insofar as gay persons...
There are two problems here. First, it's not true that gays play only a small and insular role in politics. According to the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, there are 398 openly gay elected officials in the U.S., nine of them in Connecticut. The treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, Andrew Tobias, is openly gay, and wealthy gay people are among the top donors to the Barack Obama campaign and to outside groups helping Obama...
...almost beginning to feel routine. Like the Massachusetts and California high courts before it, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples should be allowed to wed. "Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same-sex partner of their choice," Justice Richard Palmer wrote in his 4-3 opinion...
...second problem is that as long as gays are portrayed as victims who must get special treatment (or "quasi-suspect" status) from the courts, our rights will never be as durable as when we win them through the vote. The backlash to same-sex-marriage court decisions has helped conservatives all over the country, particularly in the 2004 elections. This year, the right has funded a massive campaign to overturn the marriage-equality ruling in California. (Thanks in part to donations from Mormon and Catholic groups, the campaign has raised $24 million so far, according to a Los Angeles Times...
...must not forget John Westcott, the “ex-gay” founder of Exchange Ministries, who believes nobody’s gay and yet gays are born gay and are actually gay because of their insecurities, despite Maher’s rebuttal that it takes a lot of security to walk out of the house in assless chaps. The two make peace in the end, as Westcott bounces over to Maher to give him a hug to the underscoring of the “Brokeback Mountain” theme song. This moment is almost matched when...