We’re Married… You’re Fired!

In 29 states you can be discriminated against if you are gay or lesbian, in 32 states you can be discriminated against for being transgender*.

The New Gay Orthodoxy
New York Times SundayReview
Op-Ed Columnist Frank Bruni
Sunday April 6, 2014

TO appreciate how rapidly the ground has shifted, go back just two short years, to April 2012. President Obama didn’t support marriage equality, not formally. Neither did Hillary Clinton. And few people were denouncing them as bigots whose positions rendered them too divisive, offensive and regressive to lead.

But that’s precisely the condemnation that tainted and toppled Brendan Eich after his appointment two weeks ago as the new chief executive of the technology company Mozilla. On Thursday he resigned, clearly under duress and solely because his opposition to gay marriage diverged from the views of too many employees and customers. “Under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader,” he said, and he was right, not just about the climate at Mozilla but also, to a certain degree, about the climate of America.
[…]
Even beyond these circles, the debate is essentially over, in the sense that the trajectory is immutable and the conclusion foregone. Everybody knows it, even the people who still try to stand in the way. The legalization of same-sex marriage from north to south and coast to coast is merely a matter of time, probably not much of it at that.

There will surely be setbacks, holdouts, tantrums like the one in Arizona, whose Legislature in February passed a bill that would have allowed discrimination against gays and lesbians on religious grounds. (Mississippi enacted a vaguely similar measure last week.) Arizona’s governor of course vetoed the legislation, after being pressured by corporate leaders, and their lobbying underscored the larger and more lasting story. At least beyond the offices of Chick-fil-A, it’s widely believed — no, understood — that being pro-gay is better for business than being antigay. Hence the inclusion of a same-sex couple in the famous faces-of-America commercial that Coca-Cola unveiled during the Super Bowl. Hence a more recent television spot, part of the Honey Maid food company’s “This is Wholesome” ad campaign. It showed two dads cuddling their newborn.

But let’s remember one thing, in many of those same states such as Kansas and Utah where marriage equality is now a reality, it is still legal to discriminate against gays and lesbian. If they announce their marriage the boss can legally show them the door and there is not a thing they can do about it. They can be refused a seat a luncheon counter, they can be thrown out of their apartment and denied credit all legally. So while there is a lot of shouting “We Won!” all we have won is the right to be married in a closet.

I agree with his last two paragraphs,

But it’s vital to remember how very recently so many of equality’s promoters, like Obama and Clinton, have come around and how relatively new this conversation remains. It’s crucial not to lose sight of how well the movement has been served by the less judgmental posture that Becker [Jo Becker, a Times writer] pointed out.

Sullivan is right to raise concerns about the public flogging of someone like Eich. Such vilification won’t accelerate the timetable of victory, which is certain. And it doesn’t reflect well on the victors.

People have a right to disagree with us no matter how much we think they are wrong.

*The EEOC has ruled that employment discrimination against trans-people is illegal.