Today, October 10, 1995, the nine justices of the Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments in the landmark Colorado Amendment 2 case, Romer v. Evans, a case which could effectively eliminate any protections gay, lesbian an bisexual people have from discrimination based on sexual orientation.
If the High Court upholds the Colorado state constitutional amendment, it would effectively overturn local anti-discrimination laws in Denver, Boulder, Aspen, Telluride and Crested Butte. It would exclude gay people from equal partication in the democratic process, eliminating our right to lobby lawmakers for basic protection from discrimination.
But that's not the worst of it. Historically, we know that negative decisions on important cases as Colorado Amendment 2 risk opening the flood gates for overt and aggressive anti-gay discrimination all across America. It would encourage radical right groups in local communities in every state to overturn anti-discrimination laws which now protect gay people. And most importantly, it could lead to increased levels of hate crimes and violence against the gay community. Right now in 41 of 50 states, we can be fired from our jobs, turned down for bank credit cards and home loan applications and forced out of our apartments because we are gay.
And we have no recourse! There is no federal anti-discrimination law which protects gay people. If the Supreme Court overturns the state court decision, neither the Colorado legislature nor any city council in Colorado will ever be able to consider a law protecting lesbian, gay or bisexual people from discrimination, and existing local laws already in place would be nullified.
According to legal experts, a final decision on Colorado Amendment 2 will be made early next year, perhaps as early as January. Fair-minded people must make a public commitment to raising awareness, while heightening the sensibilities of all Americans to this impending loss of civil rights. Never have the stakes been so high. The fight to overturn Colorado's Amendment 2 is a watershed for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender movement.
Ten years ago, the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's sodomy law in the infamous, Bowers v. Hardwick decision. That decision forever allowed police in states with sodomy laws to enter the private homes and bedrooms of gays in search of "illegal" sex by consenting adults. At his retirement in 1990, Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, who made the deciding vote to uphold Georgia's sodomy law, admitted that he had "probably made a mistake" in his decision. At the time, he said he believed Bowers v. Hardwick "was not a major case ... Not very important."
Yet Bowers v. Hardwick has been used as the basis for not allowing a lesbian to join the Dallas police force and to reject arguments for equal protection for gay people. We can not allow this to happen again in the Colorado Amendment 2 case. We cannot allow the justices or average Americans to believe this case is "just not important."
Melissa Wells-Petry of the ultra-conservative Family Research Council calls this upcoming Supreme Court vote, "either an endorsement or a repudiation of homosexuality." She and others from the radical right are pouring money into an effort to directly influence the Supreme Court.
So when you are thinking about what you can do, I urge you to remember the Family Research Council, Justice Powell and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people all across our nation who will be under even greater attack if this law is allowed to stand. I hope you will make your voice heard in this debate.
