No Place For Lovers

Sept.-Oct. issue [Vol. XI, No. 5] of
"The Gay & Lesbian Review / Worldwide"

The so-called "red states" seem to be embarked upon a race to the bottom when it comes to passing laws and amending their constitutions to make absolutely sure that same-sex partners will never, ever be able to be married or domestically partnered or to derive the slightest benefit therefrom.

And we have a winner: Virginia is the state with the most virulently anti-gay laws to date.

Described by The Washington Post as "jaw-dropping" in its breadth, Virginia's new law effectively nullifies contractual rights between same-sex partners. Banned by the law is any "partnership contract or other arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage."

The law targets such contracts as wills, leases, and child-custody arrangements between same-sex couples, but who knows what other types of contracts between "persons of the same sex" might be challenged?

"Nothing so homophobic has ever been enacted into law in this nation's history," commented a law professor. Jonathan Rauch, a Virginia resident and author of Gay Marriage, likened it to the Jim Crow laws that established a separate legal caste for African-Americans in the American South.

And while we're straining for historical comparisons to capture just how bad this law truly is, be it remembered that one of the first anti-Semitic acts of Nazis was the passage of laws limiting the right of Jews to enter into private contracts. This is scary stuff.