Opinion

The legalization of same-sex marriage in New York reduced this usually tough old dyke to tears. Copious tears.

I knew that events were developing quickly, that a lot of money and influence and horse-trading and strong-arming were going on. But I was still stunned when the New York Legislature passed the bill and Gov. Andrew Cuomo immediately signed it just before midnight June 24.

If the first half of this year has taught us anything, it’s that our entire state government has not simply been taken over by Republicans but by radicals. Sadly, their extremism includes fighting equality and open hostility toward the LGBT community in general.

The GOP’s march to the fringe is not slowing down. The six Republican state senators facing recalls this summer all have bad records on equality. But some of the Republican candidates running in recall elections against current Democratic state senators take things to an entirely new level.

The slogan for the Milwaukee Pride Parade this year is “Filling the streets with pride.” It is a great slogan and it seems particularly poignant in our state’s current political climate.

Months ago we witnessed unprecedented activism in Wisconsin streets and inside our Capitol. The LGBT community should certainly take pride in the role it played in this activism both inside the Capitol and out.

Last week my doorbell rang unexpectedly at 6 a.m. while I was sitting in my apartment reading the newspaper. I warily walked down the hallway to see who could be calling at such an early hour. Outside the glass door stood a disheveled young man who demanded to be let inside.  After ascertaining that he didn’t live in the building, I turned him away.

Suddenly in a raised voice he said, “You’ve got a fucking Jew living here,” and read the name of one of the tenants listed on the building directory. This ugly outburst caught me so off guard that it felt like a hot poker jammed into my brain.  A verbal scuffle ensued as I tried to get the man to leave the premises.

New York has officially become the sixth state to enact a marriage equality law. This is an obvious victory on a number of levels. New York has the third largest population in the nation, so its action opens the door to full equality for many more people. Because New York does not require residency to obtain a marriage license, the new law impacts people beyond the state’s borders.

We must remember that a winning political strategy helped deliver these results. As we celebrate the New York developments in Wisconsin, we should look at how that strategy worked.

Herb Kohl’s retirement from the U.S. Senate at the end of his fourth term opens the way for a rush of candidates to the wide-open race in 2012.

I’d love to see U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin make a run for the seat. She’s great on all the bread-and-butter issues – LGBT and women’s rights, healthcare, labor, Social Security, agriculture, clean energy, consumer rights and peace.

Writing in 1951, when gay people were being locked up and lobotomized, the brave pioneers of the Mattachine Society adopted this earnest, forward-looking mission statement:

“(T)housands of homosexuals live out their lives bewildered, unhappy and alone – isolated from their own kind and unable to adjust to the dominant culture. …A major purpose of the Mattachine Society is to provide a consensus of principle around which all of our people can rally and from which they can derive a feeling of ‘belonging.’

I’m proud to be a lesbian because I love women.

I’m proud to be a lesbian in a world that fears difference, hates women and does everything possible to squelch our independence.

The following is a response from the LGBT Intimate Partner Violence Committee of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault to statements made by Waupaca Judge Phillip Kirk in sentencing Delton Gorges on May 9.

While sentencing convicted child molester Delton Gorges, Judge Philip Kirk made some distasteful jokes about gay people. He then went on to say that Gorges must be gay and a victim of society’s homophobia, which explains his crimes. In effect, Kirk vilified gay men and tried to make Gorges appear just another victim of society.

None of the six Republican state senators facing recall this summer are friends of the LGBT community. That is clear in their repeated votes for the 2006 marriage ban and in their votes against the state domestic partnership registry in 2009.

Usually when there is so much hostility toward the LGBT community a healthy dose of hypocrisy is not far behind. One particularly glaring example of this involves Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay.