Community Commentary: Quieter session for gay issues but momentum’s still building

Minnesota Monitor welcomes guest commentaries from community members and organizations to be published at our discretion. Today, Monica Meyer, public policy director for OutFront Minnesota,  shares her thoughts on GLBT issues in the Legislature.

To be sure, the 2008 legislative session is quieter around gay issues compared to 2007. But quietly, legislative support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues is building and is bigger than ever before. This is the first couple of years we’ve not been fighting attempts to repeal rights for gay people and have been enabled to work toward positive changes in law instead.

At OutFront Minnesota’s “justFair” Lobby Day in April, we had a record number of legislators — 30 in all — who came to our rally including the leaders of both houses. House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher said, “When I think of when I first came to the House of Representatives (in 1999) and how much hate would often be spewed on the House floor, and how much that’s changed, it’s fabulous because instead of that hate, we’ve replaced that hate with another four-letter word, and that’s ‘love.’ We have replaced it with love and with the word ‘fair.’ We are going to keep fighting on your behalf to make the laws of this state more fair and more just. And we are moving things forward with your help.”

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This year, comprehensive sex education passed in both the House and the Senate with very comfortable margins. This would enable students to have age-appropriate and scientifically sound sex education that would provide the opportunity for gay and questioning youth to see themselves in the curriculum (it was removed in conference committee but there’s still work being done to push it forward). A bill to allow local governments to offer domestic partner and other health benefits to their employees and employees’ family members passed the Senate and awaits action on the House floor. And legislation to allow sick leave for immediate household members (which would include same-sex couples) is being considered as well, with one version passing the House.

To the short-term mind, it seems there is no victory unless a bill actually becomes law. But when you set your sights on a vision for the future, this is never the sole arbiter of success. You must first organize out in the community and establish a healthy supply of legislative allies — neither one a small feat. An astounding 1,300 people from all over the state came to OutFront Minnesota’s “justFair” Lobby Day — one of the biggest lobby days of any type at the state Legislature. Our legislation had 60 cosponsors last year and many of them on board again this year. If you look at those who vote in favor of gay-friendly legislation they come from all over the state — from Rochester to the Iron Range to St. Cloud and beyond. 

The millennia-old bias against gay people is being whittled away one heart and mind at a time. It might be a bit quieter for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community at the Capitol this year, but quietness has its virtues — as Arundhati Roy said, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”