State Legislatures Slow on Gay Rights 
“This has been a very sluggish year for legislation,” says Carrie Evans, an attorney who tracks gay-related bills in state legislatures for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). In part, that’s because budget woes and the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts have preoccupied most state legislatures this year, limiting the prospects for passage of additional state bills banning discrimination against gays. There’s still a chance, however, that the legislatures of three states—Illinois, Nebraska, and New York—will pass gay rights bills this year.

In Illinois, House Bill 101, which bars discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment and housing, passed the House last year but has been bottled up in the Senate. In March, when some 300 gay activists descended on the state capitol for the annual lobby day of Equality Illinois, a gay advocacy group, Senate President Pate Philip (R) announced that he would let the bill move forward. Philip is a gay-rights foe who has previously kept the bill frozen in his executive committee. But now, says Rick Garcia, Political Director of Equality Illinois, the measure “may come up for a hearing and a vote” within a month.

House Bill 101 is not out of the woods yet, however. While all the Democrats on the Rules Committee, where the bill is now pending, are for the legislation, it needs two Republican supporters. So far, despite strong support for the bill from two major GOP officeholders, Gov. George Ryan and Attorney General Jim Ryan (a candidate for governor), no Republican member of the committee has endorsed the bill. Indeed, the governor, who keynoted Equality Illinois’ annual gala in February, strongly endorsed the measure in his state of the state address in January. Garcia and other gay activists are lobbying hard.

In Nebraska, LB19, a bill that would prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation, got a boost when its sponsor, state Sen. Ernie Chambers from Omaha, named it his priority for the session, guaranteeing it would be considered. And the measure got some good PR early in April when 650 gay activists held hands and encircled the state capitol in support of the measure. Michael Gordon, president of the Nebraska Advocates for Justice and Equality, explains that if the bill passes the Cornhusker State’s nonpartisan, unicameral legislature, then it goes to Gov. Mike Johanns, a conservative Republican running for re-election. All things considered, “It’s going to be real, real close,” says Gordon.

And in New York, the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) passed the state’s House last year by its largest margin ever, but GOP social conservatives in the Senate have been preventing the measure from coming up for a vote. Now, however, supporters are optimistic that Gov. George Pataki (R) will succeed in getting the Republican-controlled senate to pass the legislation. The legislature is supposed to adjourn in late spring, so we should know soon.

Nationwide, laws guaranteeing basic civil rights to gay people are on the books in the District of Columbia and 12 states - California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

HRC, RUC, NRCC’s Davis Raise Funds Together 
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the Republican Unity Coalition (RUC), and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) chair, U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (Va.), have teamed up to host a Washington, D.C., fundraiser for three Republican congressmen. RUC, headed by Charles Francis, an openly gay friend of President Bush, was formed only two years ago but is rapidly becoming a major player in Washington’s interest-group politics.

The beneficiaries of the HRC-RUC-NRCC fundraiser (which costs $500 per political action committee or $250 per person) are U.S. Reps. Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), and Rob Simmons (R-Conn.). The trio’s HRC legislative scorecard ratings are, respectively, 67 percent, 67 percent, and 83 percent. Incidentally, Kirk’s Democratic foe, former law school dean Hank Perritt, is openly gay.

Partisan Problems in U.S. House Races 
The difference between the two major parties in Congress on gay issues is startling. Of the 211 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, 148—or 70 percent—rated 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) scorecard on gay issues in the last session of Congress. By contrast, of the 222 Republicans in the House, three—or a mere 1.4 percent—scored 100. Of course, one doesn’t have to have a perfect score to be a supporter of the gay community. But even when you count every Republican with an HRC score of 67 or above, you get 18, or just 8 percent.

Another way of looking at it is to count the zeroes in each party. One might quibble with HRC on several of the six votes and co-sponsorships that make up their scorecard. For example, some gays—unlike HRC—believe hate crimes laws punish thought, not action, and are therefore unconstitutional.

But if a member of Congress isn’t with the gay community on even one issue, it’s well nigh impossible to make a gay case for him or her. On the Democratic side, there were seven members of Congress who failed to stand with us even once, six of them from the South. On the Republican side, there were 140 zeroes. That’s 63 percent, almost as high as the 70 percent perfect scorers on the Democratic side.

Based on these numbers, it’s hard to reach any conclusion other than that the congressional wing of the Republican Party is antigay, while the Democratic is pro-gay.

However, while the pro-gay GOPers are small in number, they can be crucial on some votes. Last year, for example, support from 41 Republicans helped the House turn back an amendment that would have prevented the District of Columbia from establishing its domestic partners registry.

On the other hand, because the Republicans are in the majority and control the House machinery, legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) usually gets bottled up in committee and doesn’t get to the House floor. As things now stand, to get these bills to the floor, Democrats would have to win control of the House.

For the Democrats to win a majority in the House, however, it will almost surely require the defeat of some of the pro-gay Republicans. That’s because there’s a much higher share of GOP moderates among the Republicans who are vulnerable in this year’s elections. Based on the nationwide analysis of congressional contests in the authoritative Cook Political Report, six of the pro-gay Republicans, or one in three, could lose the election this fall. For the rest of the GOPers, about one in 10 is vulnerable.

So what does a gay voter do in Connecticut’s 2nd District (New London), where pro-gay Republican Robert Simmons, with an 83 percent HRC rating, is running for re-election and his Democratic opponent—to be chosen in a September 10 primary—will probably be every bit as pro-gay? Or in Iowa’s 2nd District (Cedar Rapids), where leading moderate Jim Leach (R), with a 100 percent HRC rating, is in a tough re-election battle with a likely pro-gay Democrat to be chosen in a June 4 primary? Or in Maryland’s 8th (Montgomery County), where Connie Morella (R), with an HRC score of 100, will probably face an equally pro-gay Democrat?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. If you’re liberal on most issues, the choice is fairly easy: Vote Democratic.

If you support the gay agenda, but are conservative on lots of other issues—one of the gay community’s swing voters—you’ll have to make a hard choice.

If gay swing voters vote Democratic, they will help the Democrats win control of Congress, which may not please these voters on, for example, tax policy. And they will also help diminish the ranks of the pro-gay minority within the Republican Party, which would be an unhealthy development. But by voting Democratic, they will boost the prospects of ENDA, hate crimes laws, and other pro-gay measures. I say “boost,” not guarantee, because while House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt has promised that a Democratic Congress will bring ENDA up for a vote on the House floor, something could happen to prevent favorable congressional action. Remember that in 1992, candidate Bill Clinton promised to lift the ban on gays in the military with the stroke of a pen. In 1993, outmaneuvered by his antigay foes, he had to agree to an unfavorable compromise.

If the gay swing voters swing Republican, they will help the GOP hang on to its majority—and very likely keep a lid on gay-friendly bills. That’s the price they’ll pay to keep taxes low and the flame of tolerance undoused in the party of Lincoln. Some gay Republicans note that their party is getting more moderate on gay issues. That may be, but elephants don’t move fast.

Faced with a choice between a pro-gay Republican and a pro-gay Democrat, gay voters need to decide what’s important to them personally. If you’re a fiscal conservative, a foreign-policy hawk, and aren’t sure civil rights legislation will make much difference in gay people’s lives, then vote Republican. On the other hand, if you believe strongly in the value of nondiscriminatory laws that apply to gay people, then by all means vote Democratic.