Lgbt Civil Rights

I am frequently asked to explain why LGBT people "deserve special privileges" by specifically having sexual identity and gender identity and expression included as protected categories in state and local hate crimes, bullying prevention, nondiscrimination policies, and other legislation.

People on both sides -- pro-LGBT and anti-LGBT -- actively avoid equating gay rights with civil rights. This avoidance is dishonest, insulting, and demeaning to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of all racial, ethnic, and cultural identities. It must stop immediately.

With all the forward momentum over the last month, it is hard not to think that we are finally feeling the impact of decades of progress in building a real bridge to equality across the country. But just because we build this bridge doesn't mean that everyone is ready to walk across it.

The key factor driving the courts' decisions about whether to strike down discriminatory laws has not been immutability but something more basic: whether a law discriminates on the basis of a trait that has no bearing on a person's ability to contribute to society.

We can refuse to collaborate in our own discrimination if we insist on paying our taxes as married couples, even though the federal government assesses our taxes as though we were single.