Almost twenty years ago, conservative activists convinced a majority of Colorado voters to approve a state constitutional amendment that prohibited the enactment of laws protecting lesbians and gay men from discrimination. The campaign in favor of the amendment was based on misinformation and outright lies. Amendment supporters, for example, argued that sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws provide gay people with "special rights" and that one of the purposes of gay rights laws was to protect child molesters from criminal prosecution.
It is an indication of how far we have come on LGBT rights in the last two decades that when a U.S. House of Representatives committee held hearings last week on whether to enact a federal law prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, these types of claims were nowhere to be seen or heard. Only one witness testified against the law, and his main point was that the bill's exemption for religious organizations was not strong enough.
This does not mean that social conservative groups are not raising the "special rights" and "promoting pedophelia"-type arguments against the proposed federal law. They are. But what is striking is how little political traction these types of claims have these days. Outside of hard-core fundamentalist circles, there are few Americans who still believe that the country would be better off by allowing employers to fire (or refuse to hire) individuals based solely on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Indeed, with polls showing a clear majority of Americans supporting equal employment opportunities for LGBT people, the right wing is on the run on this issue, relegated to quibbling about the scope of particular provisions of the bill, rather than on the more fundamental question of whether the law should be enacted at all. It is only a matter of time before this bill becomes the law of the land, and the social conservatives know it.
Anti-gay rights activists are losing not only when it comes to employment issues, but on other matters as well. For example, both houses of Congress earlier this year overwhelmingly approved a bill that will expand the federal hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by the sexual orientation or gender identity of the victims. As with employment discrimination, the vast majority of Americans support this expansion of legal protections.
What the right wing is confronting when it comes to many LGBT rights issues, then, is the power of democracy. Elected officials, in other words, are beginning to vote in ways that reflect the views of the majority of citizens on these matters. And there is no stopping this phenomenon, especially given that polling data indicate that Americans under 35 are considerably more supportive of LGBT rights positions than their elders.
As a result, the days in which a handful of social conservative activists could set the terms of the debate over gay rights issues through misinformation and fear mongering (as they did in Colorado in the early 1990s) are coming to an end. This does not mean, of course, that LGBT rights supporters will prevail on every issue going forward. But I do think that we have turned a corner because, when it comes to most sexual orientation and gender identity issues, there is a new majority in America.
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