But
though the arc of the moral universe famously bends toward justice (Dr.
King promised us this), it’s also true that for every action there is
typically an equal and opposite reaction (Sir Isaac Newton came first).
And as of this week, it seems that we are now entering a period, both
politically and possibly socially, in which the good news for gay rights
will likely be undermined and undone in a million ways large and small.
People have been worrying about a great gay rights backlash on-and-off for the past few years, of course. The Advocate even ran a foreboding cover story
mere weeks before the Court ruled in favor of gay marriage. For a time,
it seemed possible to think that recent gains would be hard to reverse.
Not long ago, I asked a Black, gay rights activist what she thought.
She looked at me like I was the most naïve person on the planet. “The
backlash is definitely coming,” she said. “And it’s going to be harsh.”
Her words seemed prescient as the off-year election results rolled in this week. In Kentucky, Republican entrepreneur Matt Bevin was elected governor by a 10-point margin,
even though polls leading up to Election Day had suggested he was
trailing Democrat Jack Conway. A Tea Party favorite, Bevin is perhaps
best known outside the state for his ardent support of Kim Davis, the
Rowan County Clerk who famously denied marriage licenses to gay couples
in her rural district. He visited her in jail and gave a rousing speech
at a rally in her honor when she was released. “I am ecstatic,” said
Davis, in a statement congratulating Bevin on his victory. “He is such a
genuine and caring person.”
Further
to the south in Houston, voters undid the Houston Equal Rights
Ordinance, a municipal law that sought to protect gay and transgender
people from discrimination. Dubbed HERO, the would-be ordinance
reflected laws across the country that seek to ban discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in areas such as
housing and employment.
What
seemed to persuade 61 percent of the voters in the nation’s fourth
largest metropolitan area that this was a bad idea is that one small
sliver of the ordinance dared to suggest that transgender people could
choose the restroom that matches their gender identity. “No Men In
Women’s’ Bathrooms” became the simple, simplistic, reductive—and totally
effective—rallying cry. At a victory party for the anti-HERO crowd,
Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick boasted that the repeal vote was
about “protecting our grandmoms, and our mothers and our wives and our
sisters and our daughters and our granddaughters.” (No word yet on where
Lt. Gov. Patrick and his ilk expect a trans woman or, for that matter, a
trans man to pee.)
You
can roll your eyes and think to yourself that, in the grand scheme of
gay rights, the bathroom thing is a rather fine point—although it’s
worth noting what any third grader will tell you, which is that public
bathrooms and locker rooms tend to be a bully’s natural habitat.
Alternately,
you may believe that the women of Texas are perhaps not as fragile as
Patrick assumes—but that, among them, transgender women are just as
worthy of civic empathy as any subgroup, maybe even more so given the
appalling statistics about anti-trans violence.
You
may even take a pragmatic approach and think to yourself that this is
all rhetoric and nonsense. Men and women use the same toilets everyday
without incident; your local Starbucks has done more to promote unisex
bathrooms than even the most militant activist could ever hope to.
Whatever
your take, the reality is that the vulgar,
dude-peeing-in-the-stall-next-to-grandma formulation has proven itself
to be a big winner, and you can bet the argument will be used again,
quite soon, in a town or city near you. In other news, Kim Davis picked
the day after her buddy Matt Bevin was elected to file her appeal.
The conversation over gay rights has entered a new phase and,
unfortunately for all of us, it’s quite literally going down the toilet.
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