Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270135
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: G2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
In this 1992 initiative, Colorado voters decided to prohibit any local laws barring discrimination against homosexuals.
Not only did the referendum (amending the state constitution) cast out local ordinances previously enacted. It barred gays and lesbians from ever seeking protective legislation in the future. No other category of people is denied such recourse.
Thankfully, the state's high court struck down the amendment. The idea of constitutional protections, after all, is that a simple majority vote can't overturn them.
Soon, the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold the Colorado decision. There's cause to hope it will, even though it ruled incredibly - in the 1986 decision, Bowers vs. Hardwick - that gays have no right to privacy, that they can be prosecuted for the type of sex they have in their own bedrooms.
Wouldn't it be nice if, in rejecting the appeal of those wanting to reinstate the Colorado initiative, the Supreme Court also rejected its own past error in Bowers? And, while we're thinking in the ideal, wouldn't ending the ban on gays in the military be an obvious next step?
Such moves would be worth celebrating by all Americans, because denying equal protection of the laws to any group ultimately endangers everyone's rights.
by CNB