THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609120021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 38 lines
Ours is a nation built on the ideal that individuals are created with uniform merit and should have equal rights under the law. For more than two hundred years we have wrestled with closing the gap between that ideal and reality.
What started as a nation in which land-owning white males were far more equal than others, has through strife and persistence evolved into a country in which women and African Americans and Italians and Jews have a reasonably equal shot at the brass ring.
This week's Senate debates over the rights of homosexuals in marriage and employment is a reminder that not all of the gaps are closed.
Critics like to say that homosexuals are asking for special rights but in truth what gays and lesbians are requesting is no more than the rights enjoyed by heterosexuals: to be hired or fired without regard for their sexual orientation, and to fall in love, form bonds of commitment, and enjoy the privileges and responsibilities that such bonds entail under the law.
As Virginia Sen. Charles Robb said during the debate: ``A nation as great as ours should not be enacting the Defense of Marriage Act. . . .Ultimately, you don't have to be an advocate of same sex marriages to vote against (it). You only have to be an opponent of discrimination.''
This country's long, sometimes tortured history of overcoming discrimination suggests that Robb's view will eventually prevail, because it is right. The narrowness of the 50-49 split to allow employment discrimination suggests that considerable movement has already occurred.
As more and more Americans come to know openly homosexual individuals and couples on a personal basis, it will be harder and harder to let discrimination stand. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kansas, acknowledged as much even as she voted for the marriage ban. Behind the debate are real men and women who want to live their lives without interference, she said.
The American ideal is that they should have that right. by CNB