The sudden loss of Massachusetts
Senator Edward Kennedy has struck a blow to the gay rights movement.
Kennedy's deep commitment to equality for all made him a strong
advocate for gay marriage, hate crimes legislation and gay
protections.
Gay activists and leaders say they have
lost a key ally in the Senate.
“It is impossible to fully describe
the transformative impact of Ted Kennedy in the Senate for lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender Americans,” Jarrett Barrios, incoming
president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
(GLAAD), said in a statement. “From the outset, he valued our
contributions and supported our equality. In those early years, his
support may have turned heads but that didn't dampen his support –
and eventually helped change hearts and minds about LGBT equality in
the Senate and around the country.”
Kennedy was one of only 14 senators who
stood against passage of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996
law that defines marriage as a heterosexual union for the federal
government and allows states to ignore gay marriages performed
outside their borders. He also supported the 2004 Massachusetts
Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage in the state.
Kennedy sponsored legislation that
would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and
gender identity and the Matthew Shepard Act, which would expand
federal hate crimes to include LGBT people.
“Senator Kennedy has, more than
anyone else, been our strongest voice in the United States Senate for
the LGBT community,” Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights
Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group, told the AP. “On
every piece of legislation – every piece – Senator Kennedy has
been the lead.”
“He'd call to tell you the date a
bill was going to move, or he'd call to thank you for something you
did,” Solmonese said. “You never felt like he was doing you any
kind of a big favor by being the singular champion on an issue that
for a lot of people was by no means politically expedient. It was
simply who he was.”
Kennedy died Tuesday in Hyannis Port,
Massachusetts after being diagnosed with brain cancer last year. He
was the patriarch of the Kennedy political dynasty, which includes
President John F. Kennedy and former Senator Robert Kennedy. He was
77.
In 2004, Kennedy released a statement
on the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), the proposed federal
constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage: “We all know what
this issue is about. It's not about how to protect the sanctity of
marriage, or how to deal with activist judges. It's about politics
and an attempt to drive a wedge between one group of citizens and the
rest of the country, solely for partisan advantage. We've rejected
that tactic before, and I'm hopeful that we will do so again. I'm
also hopeful that many of our Republican colleagues – those with
whom we've worked over the years on a bipartisan basis to expand and
defend the civil rights of gay and straight Americans alike – will
join us in rejecting this divisive effort.”