After Some Celebrating, LGBT Organizations Talk Voting Rights

[William769]

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent rulings have left many social justice advocates with mixed feelings. In the same week last month, America witnessed the demise of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Proposition 8 – huge victories for the same-sex marriage fight – and a complete rollback of vital parts of the Voting Rights Act.



Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as a way of confronting rampant discrimination at the polls in certain voting districts, especially against African-American voters in the South. The Supreme Court's recent ruling invalidated Section 4 of the act, the part specifying which districts come under Department of Justice supervision – what Rev. Al Sharpton has called the "heart" of the act. "A lot of people didn't believe that Chief Justice Roberts would have the audacity to overturn such an important civil rights bill," says Brentin Mock, Colorlines.com reporting fellow on voting rights. "People thought that perhaps he wouldn't be so cold as to actually pull the trigger. And guess what? He pulled the trigger."

In the wake of the rulings, many LGBT advocates are now turning their energy toward protecting voting rights. "I do think there is an ethos and an understanding in the community that because we're in every demographic, any attack on civil rights protections is not about someone else or 'those people,'" says Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "It's about us, and it's a fundamental attack on the kind of country we want to live in."

For years, the larger LGBT movement has received criticism for focusing on marriage equality over issues seen as more relevant to working-class people and minorities. "If you're a waitress in Jackson, Mississippi and you're working at a job with no healthcare and your girlfriend is working at the local Target or Wal-Mart," asks New Orleans writer and activist Kenyon Farrow, "how is marriage going to protect you from poverty?"

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force – which has launched a campaign called Queer the Vote to target a wide range of progressive issues – argues that marriage equality is itself an economic justice issue, citing the newly recognized federal benefits for married same-sex couples. "When we talk about these over 1,100 benefits, a lot of those benefits actually have to do with economic security," says Carey. "The ability to get your partner's Social Security when he or she dies is the difference between being able to stay in your home or becoming homeless."


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/after-some-celebrating-lgbt-organizations-talk-voting-rights-20130712

[dsc]

1. Have to say Kenyon is a moron

it is the poorest gays who are helped the most by legalizing marriage. It allows joint insurance so you only have to pay for one company's insurance or get put on the spouse who actually gets it offered to them. Poor gays can't afford to draw up the legal paper work that permits hospital visitation and the like. The couple he sites would have discounts open to them that only married people get now and could far more easily use both incomes to find a place to live. Oh and when one dies the other one gets their social security.

[William769]

2. I agree.

I believe this is a case where he can't see the forest because of the trees.

[William769]

3. It does not surprise me that this has sunk with only one person commenting.

Doesn't surprise me in the least.