Equality Means No Special Rights

If only he meant it.

According to The Washington Post, sexual orientation was the first question Ashcroft asked an applicant for a Missouri government job while governor. And Ashcroft is widely suspected of stifling Ambassador James Hormel's confirmation because Hormel is gay.

Even if Ashcroft believed his statement, the Clinton-esque wording he chose suggests he's a threat to homosexuals. He's not bashful about spouting his religious views on homosexuality or his willingness to use government to enforce his morality.

The attorney general has broad powers for setting national law enforcement priorities. As recently as the Reagan era, there was a crackdown in North Carolina on so-called "Crimes against Nature," with sting operations in Greensboro in 1983, Raleigh in 1985 and Charlotte in 1987. In September 1998, heavily armed stormtroopers invaded the Houston home of Tyrone Garner and John Geddes Lawrence, enforcing a Texas sodomy law on behalf of Governor George W. Bush.

Today's N.C. "Crimes Against Nature" felonies allow "only" a 10-month sentence for couples like Tyrone and John.

Even when the attorney general doesn't abuse these laws, they confer special advantages on heterosexuals, often denying a gay or lesbian parent child custody or visitation rights. Can government bless a union whose honeymoon would involve a felony?

Vermont's Supreme Court last year afforded their legislature the most sweeping opportunity to redefine marriage since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned racial restrictions in1967.

The Vermont court demanded absolute equality under the law for a host of legal benefits of marriage: higher taxation, hospital visitations, medical power of attorney, homestead protections and so on. The court didn't mandate the word "marriage," so legislators revived "separate but equal" with "civil unions."

During last year's Independence Day weekend, dozens of couples such as Chuck Turner and Bill Miller of Louisiana, together 30 years, tied legal knots of civil union. Miller was "just so filled with happiness, I don't know what to say."

Just eight miles up the road, not far from the site of the upcoming Tar Heel victory on Thursday, sits Duke Chapel. Though it has yet to witness a gay marriage, a decision last month allows Alliance of Baptists Chaplain Ted Purcell to perform same-sex marriages there. Purcell has been quoted to support blessing of "loving, monogamous, same-sex unions" since "Christ said nothing about homosexuality."

Opponents of the new Duke Chapel policy object, offering alternative religious views. This is a healthy debate that will properly take place among many churches, synagogues, mosques and covens.

Why involve politicians?

Conservatives argued to senators, speaking of the "sanctity of marriage" and the "special rights" that gays and lesbians are trying to force on "good and decent folks." Some constituents so value the word "marriage" that in 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA allows states to ignore each other's laws in just this one "special rights for heterosexuals" case. So 30 states, including North Carolina, passed special rights laws, claiming the word marriage only for heterosexuals.

Two concepts share a name: marriage. Separate the legal from the religious. A pair of consenting adults might or might not be entitled to a religious sacrament, but legal sacraments belong to everyone.

But the legal sacrament isn't entitled to the religious name, either. The state can recognize civil unions, even for straight couples, and leave marriage to religious institutions who can argue endlessly without involving senators or attorney generals.

The principle of government nondiscrimination is attacked by liberals when the issue is the thought crimes embodied in recent "hate crime" legislation.

Shouldn't we revile Matthew Shepard's murder equally whether Matt was gay or straight? He shouldn't need special protection.

Prohibition doesn't eradicate a thought, it only hides it where society can't heal it.

Equality is a beautiful ideal. We should demand it from our government, even as we respect the right of others not to share.

We should not send in the SWAT teams to allow gays in the Boy Scouts any more than to integrate the Pink Pistols. Freedom of association is fundamental. Yet discovering hurtful policies of private groups may instigate social discussion. As society re-evaluates the Boy Scouts, their support might diminish.

John Ashcroft is threatening not because he doesn't support special rights for homosexuals. He's dangerous because he doesn't admit the special rights heterosexuals already have. To help oppose Ashcroft's confirmation or work for true equality, visit www.unc.edu/student/orgs/tl.

Russ Helms, a doctoral candidate in biostatistics from Chapel Hill, is happily unioned to his soul mate, Wendy Greene, and hopes everyone else may know similar happiness. E-mail him at rhelms@bios.unc.edu.