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By: LAURA DOUGLAS-BROWN
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Despite attacks from social conservatives and blistering losses in November’s
elections, gay rights advocates should not scale back in the push for legal marriage,
according to one activist who has had a visible, and possibly controversial, role
in the fight.
“The lessons of history are clear — equality cannot wait for a
convenient time, society only moves toward equality when challenged to do so,”
Cheryl Jacques writes on the Web site she launched after resigning as president
of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights group.
Massachusetts’s first openly gay state senator, Jacques left the post
in January 2004 to become president of the Washington, D.C.-based HRC, and led
the group during the heat of last year’s battles over federal and state
constitutional amendments banning gays from marriage.
But citing “a difference in management philosophy,” HRC announced
Jacques’ resignation Nov. 30.
Neither side has been willing to elaborate on the resignation, prompting speculation
that other issues may have been involved, including differences over how to
fight the marriage amendments. While the federal amendment was defeated in Congress,
13 states, including Georgia, approved constitutional gay marriage bans last
year.
Jacques still resides in Washington with her partner, Jennifer Chrisler, executive
director of the Family Pride Coalition, and their twin sons, and has continued
speaking out frequently on the fight for gay rights, including full legal marriage.
In speeches and interviews, she frequently draws comparisons to the African-American
civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement, noting that victories
were never quick or easy.
Southern Voice spoke with Jacques as she prepared to address the May 19 meeting
of the gay Atlanta Executive Network.
Jacques: There is no retreating from an achieved moment of equality, and while
we could spend hours debating whether the Massachusetts marriage decision came
at the right moment in our movement, it is a debate that is a complete waste
of time. It’s happened, it’s here, we have tasted full equality,
and there is no turning back nor should there be.
Jacques: This isn’t one size fits all. I’m not saying Georgia activists
need to run out and put a gay marriage question on the ballot. I’m saying
… don’t take away from the progress that is being made in patches
throughout this country. Don’t denounce it, don’t belittle it, don’t
hide from it, then go into your backyard and start working for whatever is achievable…
Jacques: It’s a fascinating schism, isn’t it? … The enactment
of civil unions in Connecticut without any court mandate is progress no matter
how you look at it. … We should embrace [victories like civil unions],
support them and applaud the leaders who achieve them, and then we get up the
next morning and keep fighting for full marriage and full equality. …
Jacques: … To encourage people to stay in the fight, I say, just think
back 10 years — that’s not that long, and then our GLBT community
would never have never dreamed of achieving marriage equality. We would have
never dreamed we would be having this fight over did it come too soon.
When I entered the Massachusetts legislature as a senator, domestic partnership
was this very controversial concept … and now [we have marriage in Massachusetts
and] the majority of Americans say they support some sort of legal recognition
for gay couples. That has to inspire people to come out and stay involved.
Jacques: I’m really not at liberty to discuss why I left, but suffice ...
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