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In wake of Sept. 11 attacks, activists know that their political agenda takes a back seat to tragedy
By Peter Cassels

As the nation remains transfixed on the Sept.11 terrorist attacks and the government's response, activists are shifting gears in their continuing fight to expand gay rights. Efforts to push forward federal legislation to add sexual orientation to discrimination and hate-crimes laws have taken a back seat to victim relief efforts, such as making sure domestic partners get the same benefits as other families. Lobbyists also are seeking to assist gays and lesbians who lost their livelihood because of massive layoffs in the fallout following the attacks.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions was to have held a hearing on the recently reintroduced Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) Oct. 2, but Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., committee chair and the bill's chief sponsor, cancelled it. Instead, the committee is considering legislation to help workers hit by job cuts in the airline and other industry sectors hit hard as Americans reduce their travel plans in light of terrorism fears and a declining economy.

Also affected is the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act, the renamed and also recently reintroduced bill attempting to add gays and lesbians to federal hate-crimes protections.

Although Congressional and other proponents of both bills continue to see a strong need for both pieces of legislation, particularly the hate-crimes legislation because of harassment of Arab-Americans after the terrorist attacks, they agree that national security and help for the jobless must now take priority.

Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), told Bay Windows Oct. 8 that she expects both bills will be on the back burner until after the first of the year. ``Priorities have changed," she acknowledged. ``But I don't think our strategies have changed. While we are revisiting the timing on a number of legislative issues, notwithstanding the horror of September 11, discrimination against the GLBT community hasn't stopped."

She alluded to the homophobic remarks of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, supported by televangelist Pat Robertson, blaming gays and lesbians and others for creating an environment that allowed the terrorists to act. Public reaction was swift and severe, forcing Falwell to issue an apology.

Compounding the homophobia, Stachelberg added, was criticism by the Rev. Lou Sheldon, chair of the anti-gay Traditional Values Coalition, that the American Red Cross and other relief agencies were allowing the partners of gay victims to be eligible for relief funds.

``[Relief organizations] should be first giving priority to those widows who were at home with their babies, and those widowers who lost their wives," Sheldon said in a Cybercast News Service report. ``It should be given on the basis and priority of one man and one woman in a marital relationship. This is just another example of how the gay agenda is seeking to overturn the one man-one woman relationship from center stage in America, taking advantage of this tragedy."

Reacting to the religious Right leader, the HRC called Sheldon's ``inflammatory" remarks ``divisive and come at a time when Americans are rallying to come together and assist all families affected by the terrorist attacks." Stachelberg added: ``We are dismayed that Sheldon would choose this time to attack families who are in mourning and dealing with the loss of a loved one. Relief should be given regardless of sexual orientation. We are disappointed, but not surprised, that Sheldon would inflict hurt at a time when healing is needed."

Stachelberg told Bay Windows the HRC is working to assure that relief organizations assist gays and lesbians: ``Ensuring that private and public relief efforts are inclusive [is a priority]. The Red Cross has done all the right things. We are an organization that is going to work with [them]."

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force also deplored Sheldon's comments. ``Lou Sheldon's hateful rhetoric has again crossed the line," Executive Director Lorri Jean said in a statement. ``This is a time when everyone should stand united in support of the terrorism victims. September 11 proved that heroism knows no sexual orientation. It is divisive and inhumane to suggest that relief workers turn their backs on any victim of this horrible tragedy."

``Once again, Sheldon is out of step with the rest of the country," Jean added. ``He is taking the `get back to business' mantra to the extreme by not skipping a beat in promoting the same narrow and hateful agenda that has been his trademark for years. I sincerely hope that the American people will rise up in protest against Sheldon's fanaticism, just as they did against Jerry Falwell's."

During remarks at the annual HRC National Dinner in Washington Oct. 6, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., also supported assistance for gay and lesbian terrorism victims. Addressing a sold-out crowd of 2,200, Clinton said that the surviving partners of gay and lesbian victims of the terrorist attacks should get the same benefits that the families of other victims receive, saying ``domestic partners should enjoy the same benefits afforded other couples."

``We have to make clear that what we're fighting for is our values," the former First Lady stressed. ``And that includes ending discrimination against gays and lesbians once and for all" including the same health insurance, inheritance, property taxes and other assistance.

Stachelberg said she disagrees with some observers, such as Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe, who stated at a Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders dinner honoring him Sept. 28 that the terrorists have given the conservative Right a new enemy to focus their attention on, perhaps diverting its attention from gays and lesbians. ``If anything, the religious political conservatives have redoubled their antigay rhetoric," she pointed out. ``I don't know whether that will stand over the long term. [They] have attempted to cast themselves as pro-family, but have continued to demonstrate how anti-family they are. ``

Stachelberg did point to the recent successful efforts in the U.S. House, led by gay Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., to grant Washington, D.C., city employees domestic-partner benefits, as a sign that attitudes towards gays are shifting in Congress. Emphasizing that that battle isn't over -- the Senate must still act on the appropriations bill that includes the DP amendment -- she reported, ``It's taken nine years for that law to be this close to being implemented." Because of the Sept. 11 events, ``there are people who understand GLBT families differently than before. …I think that's a good signal that our community has made great strides and we need to continue that work. There's a rejection of that kind of antigay sentiment in Congress" that was evident before the vote.

(The New York-based Stonewall Community Foundation has established the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Disaster Relief Fund to help those directly affected by the World Trade Center disaster. A community panel will direct the tax-deductible donations to new or existing non-discriminatory relief funds. Checks, payable to Stonewall Community Foundation and earmarked for ``Disaster Relief," can be mailed to: Stonewall Community Foundation, 119 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011.)

Peter Cassels is associate editor at Bay Windows. His e-mail address is pcassels@baywindows.com.

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