Gay-rights proposals gain in Congress

WASHINGTON -- After more than a decade of government inaction, gay-rights proponents in Congress have gotten several major bills moving through the Democratic-controlled chambers, a development that could result in the greatest expansion of federal protections for gays and lesbians in US history.

This week, a key House committee is set to approve a measure that would in some cases make hate crimes based on a victim's sexual orientation a federal offense, as are crimes committed on the basis of the race or religion of the victim.

Also, a bipartisan group of House members introduced a bill yesterday that would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Both pieces of legislation are on track for congressional approval in the coming months.

If Congress passes the bills, gay-rights advocates say, it reflects a dramatic change in the national political landscape. In the dozen years Republicans controlled Congress, GOP lawmakers paid little attention to the gay-rights agenda and kept some gay-friendly legislation from even being considered.

"For millions of Americans, it's a very important affirmation of their lives, and we're not talking about [just] symbolism here," said Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat who is openly gay. "We are talking about real problems that exist in people's lives."

Democratic leaders say that while they have enough votes to approve both measures, they probably could not override a presidential veto. That will probably leave it to President Bush, who has not stated a position on either bill, to decide whether they will become law, and Bush's decision could propel the issue of gay rights into the 2008 presidential campaign.

The congressional move to expand gay rights is particularly striking given recent history: Besides halting nearly all gay-rights bills while they were in power, the GOP has tried in recent years to get a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

A similar dynamic has played out in the states.

Between 2004 and 2006, voters in 22 states banned gay marriage. But this year, the momentum has shifted : New Hampshire is ready to pass a civil unions bill, and states, including New York and Connecticut, are considering whether to join Massachusetts and draft bills to legally recognize gay marriage.

"The shift has just been seismic in the last year," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights advocacy group. Of the federal legislation, he added, "It's incredibly important for our community, and it's a profound advance in terms of civil rights legislation."

In response, however, conservatives are gearing up a lobbying campaign to try to defeat the hate crimes and anti discrimination legislation.

Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republicans' chief deputy whip, said Democrats are wrong to create laws that would mete out special punishment for crimes against people based solely on sexual orientation or other characteristics.

"We need stricter enforcement of present [anti discrimination] law, not a new law protecting special classes of people and not others," Cantor said. "Here in this Congress I feel it is not our duty, nor should it be our business, to distinguish between different kinds of murder. Murder is murder."

A group of African-American clergy members rallied on Capitol Hill yesterday against the hate crimes bill, which they said was akin to granting special legal protections to a class of "sinners."

Several of the ministers said they feared the measure could lead to prosecution of church leaders who preach against homosexuality if, for example, a church member were to commit a hate crime against a gay man or a lesbian after listening to a sermon that denounced homosexuality.

"Courts have an interesting way of interpreting laws, and once this can of worms is open, it will be very hard to close," said Pastor Marvin L. Winans of Perfecting Church in Detroit. "This step of recognizing homosexuality as a protected class would be a huge advancement in this nation toward adopting and condoning this behavior as natural."

But with Democrats in control of the agenda, the hate crimes and anti discrimination bills are on track for passage in both the House and Senate, and Frank said the public is on their side.

He pointed out that, despite the GOP's efforts to portray Democratic lawmakers as pushing a "radical gay agenda," Democrats cruised to victory in last fall's congressional elections.

"We have had an affirmation in the last election that the American people support fairness," he said.

Both gay-rights measures enjoy bipartisan support.

Representative Deborah Pryce -- an Ohio Republican who is co sponsoring the workplace protection bill prohibiting the firing or demotion of employees because of their sexual orientation -- said the measure simply ensures that gays, lesbians, and transgendered people are treated the same as everyone else.

"It is by no means revolutionary in its philosophy," Pryce said. "This is the American way."

Seventeen states, including Massachusetts, already have bans on employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the bill introduced yesterday would create a nationwide standard.

A similar federal measure before the Senate in 1996 fell one vote short of becoming law.

The current bill exempts religious institutions, which have their own policies on sexual orientation, as well as the military, which prohibits gays and lesbians from serving under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The hate crimes bill would allow federal authorities to get involved in investigating state and local crimes if a victim is believed to have been targeted because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

"Law enforcement has been forced to investigate these crimes with one hand tied behind its back," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who introduced the bill along with Senator Gordon Smith, Republican of Oregon. "That's wrong, and Congress must set it right."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment regarding the president's position on the gay-rights bills.

Gay-rights advocates say they hope the bills they are focusing on now will open the door to other advances .

They have set their sights on equal tax treatment of domestic partnership benefits -- the Internal Revenue Service considers such benefits taxable income, unlike benefits available to heterosexual spouses -- and to repeal the armed forces' "don't ask, don't tell" policy.