Subject: Gay Rights Bill -from Cecilie Surasky
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 09:46:51 -0500

On Passage of the RI Gay Rights Bill

Discrimination is like terrorism. It only takes a few acts of hatred to keep
an entire group of people hiding in fear. And we gays and lesbians have
experienced a lifetime of terrorism. 

We know what it is to be called ugly epithets by both family and strangers.
We know what it is to watch hard working brothers and sisters get purple
hearts for killing someone, and unceremoniously fired or court marshaled for
loving someone. 

Each of us knows someone who lost a job or was kicked out of their apartment
or was beaten or killed for being gay or lesbian. And each of us feels fear
deep in our stomach that at any moment, if it hasn't happened already, we may
be next.

It is this pervasive fear that keeps us hiding and in shame. And it is this
fear that makes each time someone comes out an act of both sheer terror and
great courage.

That is why passage of Rhode Island's gay civil rights bill on Friday was so
significant. What the bill says is that the few terrorists who choose to
openly discriminate will no longer be able to do so unhindered. What the bill
says is that gays, lesbians and bisexuals are no longer the easiest targets
for cheap hatreds, petty vendettas or baseless ignorance. 

Many have argued that the government can't use law to force people to change
their attitudes of hatred or ignorance. But this bill lets gays and lesbians
and our friends and families know that for the first time in Rhode Island, we
can stop hiding. And as all of us stop hiding, attitudes will change.

As passage of the bill indicates, they already have.

Without the extraordinary perseverance of a handful of remarkable
legislators, some very dedicated individuals and the RI Alliance for Lesbian
and Gay Civil rights, there would be no bill. And we are blessed with a
Governor who signed the bill because he sees the issue clearly as a matter of
civil rights.

But just as importantly, it is the sum total of the small acts of everyday
people that ultimately made passage of the bill possible. Men and women who
stood up in their churches and spoke openly of their experiences. Parents who
fought a lifetime of moral teachings to embrace children who came out to
them. Constituents who risked everything to be honest with their legislators.

But more than that, there are the gays, lesbians and bisexuals who, being
born into a world that did not want them around, had no choice but to become
visionaries. Those for whom silence and shame and living a life of lies was
not acceptable. 

These are the thousands of Rhode Islanders who have already come out in their
jobs or have come out to their families. Or who decided to build their own
pride parades and softball leagues; religious groups and social networks;
bookstores and student groups.

All of these people have helped weave the web of social change that made the
bill possible. And in the process, all of us have been transformed.

Many gays and lesbians have grown immeasurably strong and empowered by this
building work we have had to do. We have had to fight to accept ourselves
despite everyone else telling us that we should not. We have created and
nurtured wonderful cultural institutions that make life richer for everyone.

Just as importantly, the minds of legislators and constituents alike have
been stretched. Old assumptions have had to be thrown out. The refusal of
gays and lesbians to simply "go away" has demanded that people of
Judeo-Christian faith genuinely re-examine the mandate to "love one another".

In many ways, this has not been a comfortable process. Change never is. But
it is a critical process if we are to grow and thrive.

Too many broken homes and broken hearts are proof of that.

(SUBTITLE)
Most believe that government legislatures are the arenas where only hard
facts and scientific rationality determine public policy. But that is a false
argument. 

Year after year, intelligent people who listened to hours and hours of
exhaustive testimony arrived at diametrically opposed conclusions about the
need for the bill. 

On the floor of the House or Senate, they used  "facts" they derived from
these hearings to justify their positions. But the bill was not won by
"facts" alone. It passed because of love.

The mothers and fathers and heterosexual allies who spent day after day
ceaselessly lobbying at the State House did so out of love. The rabbis and
priests and ministers and nuns who testified and wrote letters in support of
the bill did so because of love. The gays and lesbians and bisexuals who
spent the last 12 years trying to get the bill passed did so out of love.

Many legislators who voted for the bill acknowledged that they became
committed to the bill when they learned that someone they loved or respected,
or the relative of someone they loved or respected, was gay or lesbian. For
these legislators, it became clear that we gays and lesbians aren't separate
from, but rather a part of the rich mixture of families and values and
cultures that make up the collective public and private life of this state . 

On the other hand, many who voted against the bill love no one whom they know
to be gay or lesbian. For many of them, we still constitute a threatening
group of outsiders. They view us as a dreadful virus that will infect the
rest of culture if allowed to go unchecked. 

But we aren't outsiders. We have always been part of their families, their
schools, their work places, their places of worship, and  even their
legislature. We have helped to create the things they love the most, as well
as the things they hate the most. After all, we are human.

We are flesh and blood brothers and sisters who share the most fundamental
desire with all people: the right to love and be loved.

No longer famous these days simply as a unit of measurement or an endless
source of political corruption, Rhode Island will now be known as the state
that when confronted with a choice between fear and love, came down
unequivocally on the side of love.

Congratulations Rhode Island.

_______________
Cecilie Surasky can be reached via e-mail at [email-masked] {et