House Bill 3104

"There are over 1,100 rights, benefits and responsibilities conferred on married couples by the federal government including access to health care, parenting and immigration rights, social security, veterans and survivor benefits, and transfer of property—and that doesn't include state and local law, and employers, or the intangible security, dignity, and meaning that comes with marriage." from a reference to the United States General Accounting Office investigation for the abhorrent "The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)".

House Bill 3104 passed 62 to 32 in Washington. It outlines 170 rights for same sex couples at a state level. Now, to pass it must make it through the State Senate and Governors office. This builds on the Domestic Partnership Bill, signed into law and then enacted July 23, 2007 . This bill "provides access to certain rights and benefits, such as those associated with hospital visitation, health care decision-making, organ donation decisions, and other issues related to illness, incapacity, death" Chapter 156.

If this next bill passes through to law and including the previous, we would only be 1000 or so rights, at the state and federal levels to form true equality.

Of course, states that can jail you for it were still very real until Texas' anti-sodomy law was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, June 26, 2003, in Lawrence v. Texas.
Of course, while unconstitutional, it remains on the books right under sexual abuse of children.

 § 21.06.  HOMOSEXUAL CONDUCT.
(a)  A person commits an offense if he engages
in deviate sexual intercourse with another
individual of the same sex.

So, how far have we truly come as a great society of tolerance and peace? Is this an issue I should lay down in the face of more pressing issues such as international hunger? Would YOU ignore implications that you are, but a corruptive influence and a step away from an outright danger to society? It haunts me to know that my career may never achieve what it could because I am gay, that I cannot travel some places at risk of jail, that in many places in the US, my life could be at risk, that my family and many friends will never accept me and that my love will be regarded by the courts, in practice, as a triviality not meriting protection. Granted, I am fortunate to live in a relatively tolerant place, but a weak city ordinance is trumped by state and federal and, above all, social laws. Could a Seattle mayor be gay? Could a president be gay? And if not, then do we as a country truly believe ourselves to be just? Do we honor the code to:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Do a few TV characters constitute freed breath for huddled masses? By most measures, about 10% of the total population is homosexual. In my estimation, that constitutes a "teaming shore," one that has been burned, tortured and killed for centuries, like many oppressed minorities. In WWII, the Nazi's targeted gays with excelled cruelty, matched by fellow concentration camp members. This accounts for the death rate as high as 60%, high compared to most other groups. What is worse, is the allies denied them freedom and even re-arrested them if they escaped. This was in the 1940's, when my grandparents were young. It was just in 2005 when "the European Parliament adopted a resolution regarding the Holocaust where the persecution of homosexuals was mentioned." My Grandfather died in 2002; it took a lifetime to only acknowledge acts done in so horrific a manner.



How long will it take to acknowledge what has been much more recent, like "Don't ask, Don't tell"? Dishonorable discharges on the grounds of homosexuality from 1994 to 2005 totaled 11,082, or over 2 per day. I hear that the rate is accelerating, despite a very expensive war and rising public favor for a fully lifted ban, as promised when the measure was reached in 1992. This figure does not include the 65,000 current gay military men and women and the 1,000,000 gay veterans, mentioned in 2007 by 28 retired generals and admirals, for whom this also raises implications.

This issue is barely touched, but this is already a long post for blog, and I do not wish to belabor the point. I am grieved and hope this post helps those of you share that grief a little. I hope to find this "Golden Door" our liberty shines light upon, for I do not see it now.