Gay Rights Are Civil Rights

In the past month the gay rights movement won a minor victory behind the efforts of an unexpected hero, and was dealt a public blow by one of its longest-standing opponents.

The victory came in the Wyoming state legislature the last week of February, when 27 year-old Republican Representative Dan Zwonitzer spoke passionately before the House Rules Committee in opposition to a bill that would have denied legal recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other states. Zwonitzer, who is heterosexual, told the Jackson Hole Star Tribune on March 6 that he didn't care if his stand cost him his seat in the legislature.

"I tell myself that there are some issues that are greater than me, and I believe this is one of them," he said. "And if standing up for equal rights costs me my seat, so be it. I will let history be my judge, and I can go back to my constituents and say I stood up for basic rights. I will tell my children that when this debate went on, I stood up for basic rights for people." The crusade for gay equality, Rep. Zwonitzer told the Rules Committee, is the civil rights struggle of his generation.[1], [2]

The blow came from the United States military in the person of Joint Chiefs Chairman General Peter Pace, who told the Chicago Tribune during a telephone interview this past Monday, "[3]

Pace issued a statement through the Defense Department the next day attempting to soften his words to the Tribune, saying "In expressing my support for the current policy, I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct. I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views." At least Pace is sticking to his guns, and not compounding bigotry with cowardice.

On his syndicated radio segment, "The Osgood File," CBS News Sunday Morning anchor Charles Osgood suggested that Pace's remarks had ignited such controversy because the general had said "what he really thinks." Public figures often behave as though they're allergic to candor, so Osgood does have a point, but it wasn't a lack of guile that got Pace into trouble.