Not quite good enough

I'm trying real hard to feel happy about Connecticut's legalization yesterday of "civil unions" for same-sex couples. After all, it is a baby step forward for committed gay and lesbian partners, and does acknowledge and protect certain rights that should be afforded any two people in love.

But that annoying, rational voice in my head keeps muttering things like "half-assed compromise" and "separate but equal" and "colored only", phrases connected with a mindset that avoids actually setting things right, and instead tries only to placate both sides of the issue without pleasing either. It's the language of Jim Crow. It's an attitude that doesn't fully address the "equal" part of the cliché, but sure reinforces the "separate". It's a patchwork solution that allows for the continued marginalization of a significant percentage of our population as unacceptably different, out-of-the-ordinary, second-class.

And that's not quite good enough.

This same line of thinking simmers right under the surface in Governor Schwarzenegger's decision Saturday to veto a bill approved by the Sate Senate (which "recast the state's legal definition of marriage as a union between two people"), while simultaneously claiming he would "support current domestic partnership rights and... continue to vigorously defend and enforce these rights." Sorry, Ahnuld, but to paraphrase a line from T3, this simply demonstrates that your CPU is not programmed to understand the complexities of human pair-bonding.

Until this nation decides to follow the recent example of Massachusetts and join the 21st Century, half-measures such as "civil unions" will do nothing more than telegraph a message to the world community that America, despite our claims to the contrary, is not really about justice and equality for all. Instead, the institutionalized homophobia that masquerades as "family values" in this nation is much more about rights for the select few. Privileges for the government-approved. "Us" versus "them". It's an abhorrent and antiquated view that's focused only on the mechanics of sexual congress (see Peeping Tom, n.), while ignoring the inherent fairness of supporting stable, loving relationships regardless of how the puzzle pieces fit.

So I'm trying to be happy. Really, really hard. But when I see that a 19-year-old B.U. Spanish major understands this issue better than our supposedly wise elected leaders, I can't quite bring myself to celebrate. America has to do better in its policies toward the gay community. And "separate but equal" is not a policy that should make any of us proud.