AP Update on Recent Gay Rights Advances

The guys at The Agenda who run the blog for New York State's Empire State Pride Agenda (the New York equivalent of our Equality California) linked to an AP story on the New York Times website with a run-down on recent gay rights victories, although the state legislative sessions are not completely over (New York's is expected to end on Friday with a marriage equality bill sponsored by the newly elected Democratic Governor passing the lower house of the legislature.)

[...]

Three more states -- Oregon, Iowa and Colorado -- have enacted laws this year outlawing anti-gay discrimination, raising the total to 20 states that account for more than half the U.S. population. Twelve of those states extend those protections to transgender people.

[...]

Other trends have buoyed gay-rights leaders, including:

--Bright prospects for congressional passage of two gay-rights bills: a hate-crimes bill that would cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias, and a measure that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.

--Intensifying demands for repeal of the ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy that bars openly gay people from serving in the military. The Bush administration supports the policy; all the Democratic presidential candidates oppose it.

--The broad repudiation of anti-gay remarks by several national figures, notably TV actor Isaiah Washington, commentator Ann Coulter and the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace.

[...]

The article goes on to talk about the high profile issue of gay marriage marriage equality, especially with high-stakes electoral battles likely to be set in California and Florida.

Massachusetts is the only state where gay marriage is legal, but nine other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples -- Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii.

California, which now has a domestic partnership law, will probably be the next major battleground. Its legislature is expected to pass a bill this year allowing gay couples to marry, although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he would veto it. A separate legal challenge to California's one man-one woman marriage law is headed to the state Supreme Court.

In response, some conservative groups hope to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2008 that would ban gay marriage. Such a campaign would trigger massive spending from both sides.

''The outcome of that race will have a huge impact on how quickly we'll be able to move forward in other states,'' said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. ''If we lose in California, marriage equality is going to be limited to just a handful of states for the foreseeable future.''

A similar ban is expected to be on Florida's ballot next year, although under state law it would need at least 60 percent support to prevail.

''There's no question that's a challenge, but we're definitely up for it,'' said John Stemberger, president of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council.

Gee, what's so special about Florida law that they have to pass their constitutional amendment by 60%? That sounds like a fantastic idea. For ballot measures affecting "discrete, insular minorities" negatively a super majority of 66% should be required to have these discriminatory amendments go into effect. I wonder how we can get something like that in California....