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Winning the right to marry won’t be the end of the struggle for LGBT equality

By Francesca de la Fuente

July 18, 2010 9:06 p.m.

The current news surrounding the gay rights movement seems to be almost exclusively about same-sex marriage: part of the Defense of Marriage Act was found unconstitutional, a ruling in the Proposition 8 case is on the horizon and Argentina just legalized same-sex marriage.

The problem is that people seem to think of same-sex marriage as the end-all, be-all of the gay rights movement. However, a recent UCLA study found that discrimination against homosexuals is still alive and well ““ and will not go away easily, with or without the legalization of same-sex marriage.

The study exposes a very subtle form of discrimination against homosexuals. Researchers found that partnered gay men were only 42 percent as likely to get health insurance coverage for dependents as married heterosexual men. For partnered lesbian women, the number is worse.

They were only 28 percent as likely to get health insurance coverage as married heterosexual women.

The researchers also found that “employers were setting coverage rules … that favored legally and heterosexually married employees.”

One of the study’s key aspects was how the government and employers defined ‘dependent’, a significant factor in determining who gets health insurance and how much. Their definitions discriminated against same-sex couples and made it much harder for these couples to get the same health insurance coverage as a heterosexual couple.

“Same-sex marriage will help once it is legalized, but there always be people who will continue to discriminate against the LGBT community,” Katelyn Foster, a second-year nursing student and a lesbian, said. “People have told me that seeing me and my girlfriend holding hands has scarred them for life.”

What Foster’s experience reveals is that changing the rules will not change the underlying principle: Awarding the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community the same rights as the heterosexual community will not erase discrimination against people identified as LGBTQ.

The end of segregation and the passage of the Civil Rights Act gave African Americans and other minorities the same rights as white Americans, but they did not end racism and discrimination.

In another more obvious example of discrimination, the military is just now reviewing its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in an effort to determine whether it should continued. This is probably the most salient analogy to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, as it is the most blatant form of discrimination against homosexuals that exists in this country.

If you identify as a homosexual while serving in the military, it doesn’t matter how good your service record is or how good you are at your job ““ you are not wanted. Such a clear-cut case of discrimination has not been seen since the days of “Whites Only” signs at swimming pools and on job applications.

In essence, what this study and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy reveals is that by virtue of their sexual orientation, homosexuals are treated as lesser than the average citizen. Would same-sex marriage change this? It might.

“Legalizing same-sex marriage … will help people realize that homosexuals deserve the same rights as everybody else,” said Professor Lee Badgett of the UCLA Williams Institute.

But it’s just as likely that it might not. “(Legalization) doesn’t necessarily mean employment discrimination will go away,” Badgett said.

Discrimination against people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning will not end merely because the state extends to them one of the many rights granted to heterosexuals. People must recognize that sexual orientation, like skin color, is not a choice: You are born with it and you live with it.

While many push for the legalization of same-sex marriage, it will not end the true problem. The discrimination may no longer be institutional, but it remains.

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Francesca de la Fuente
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