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A Bigot's Barnyard or Legally Liberal? |
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By Jesse Monteagudo
Recently Atlanta's Southern Voice conducted a survey of state laws dealing with homosexuality to determine which were the best and worst states, legally speaking, for lesbians and gay men.
According to the Voice, "[e]ach of the 50 states and the District of Columbia were ranked on a system that assigned points for gay-friendly and anti-gay laws in each. . . . Positive points were awarded to states with pro-gay laws, including statewide laws prohibiting discrimination in employment and other arenas, laws recognizing same-sex relationships or enabling gay couples to share domestic partnership benefits, hate crime laws, and laws and court rulings recognizing parental rights and other family concerns. . . Negative points were assigned to states with anti-gay laws in force, including sodomy laws, laws to prevent any recognition of same-sex marriages, and laws or court rulings that prevented recognition of gay parental rights or adoption." The Southern Voice's survey divided the USA as decisively as did last year's presidential election, which as you may recall split this country between red states that voted for Bush and blue states that voted for Gore.
On the other hand, the Southland "includes eight of the 12 worst states in which to be gay", including many of the "[f]ourteen states [which] still have laws prohibiting sodomy for same-sex couples." Florida, my home state, was ranked 42nd, between Arkansas and South Carolina. There is no question that Vermont belongs at # 1. "In addition to having the nation''s first and only law giving comprehensive recognition of same-sex relationships," Keen reminds us, "Vermont . . . has a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, credit, and union practices. On the other hand, Oklahoma "has no statewide laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or recognizing gay relationships or families . . . has a law that makes sodomy a felony for same-sex couples . . . excludes sexual orientation from its hate crime law and has a law prohibiting recognition of same-sex marriages." I certainly wouldn't want to live in Oklahoma - or in Mississippi, Virginia, Alabama or Kansas, for that matter. But I live in Florida, which the Voice survey says is bad for gays. Is that fair? Yes and no. Florida does have a "sodomy law" - which applies to all sexual orientations - lacks a statewide law protecting sexual minorities and forbids same-sex marriages or adoptions by homosexuals. But Florida also has some of the largest, most dynamic and most politically astute lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities in America. Not even the most pessimistic among us would want to move to Arkansas, which the survey says is better for us than Florida. Even Keen admits that "the rankings can be deceiving", noting that while Florida "does not have a statewide civil rights law protecting gays . . . 41 percent of its population is covered through its local ordinances, many of which have been defended against numerous attacks. " "As a state, we've won a number of battles to pass and keep human rights ordinances and domestic partner policies at the local level," said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida and the Sunshine State's leading activist. On the other hand, as Smith told the Voice, Florida's laws "continue to be among the worst in the country" as far as we are concerned.
This discrepancy between Florida's homophobic legal system and its flourishing gay communities - communities which in turn attract tourists to come over and break this State's sodomy law - has been noted by other commentators, myself included. The authors of the Spartacus International Gay Guide simply concluded that "[l]aws don't seem to be everything in life."
Simply put, Florida is a great state with many bad leaders. And some horrible laws. It is a conservative state with liberal areas, and while the liberals might elect liberals to represent them the conservatives are the ones who rule in Tallahassee. Repealing a bad law is even harder than passing a good one, and Florida's bad laws will remain on the books as long as JEB and Co. remain in power, perhaps even longer. Perhaps some day Florida's LGBT community and our friends will have the clout to repeal some of our negative laws, pass a few positive ones, and move our state a few notches up the Southern Voice's list. In the meantime, our community must keep on doing what it is doing now: elect friendly politicians, help pass and keep supportive legislation where it's possible to do so, and do our best to fight regressive laws and lawmakers. As depressing as Florida's legal status may be, it should only encourage us to work harder. On the other hand, remembering all that we have accomplished in spite of this state's laws should make us feel good about ourselves and what we have done.
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Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer who lives in South Florida with
his domestic partner. He can be reached at 