Andrew D – Marketing Director

I didn’t really have an opinion on the matter until I relayed the question to my partner. His response, and I agree with him, was that ENDA is most important right now. The reason being that all systemic problems/periphery issues, are based in discrimination. If Discrimination is ended in the work place, that will be ingrained in ALL people, and be carried out into the world beyond the office. Or at least people will begin to be exposed to the LGBT community and feel less threatened. Once ENDA is in place, everything will trickle down, at least that’s his theory, and I’m prone to agree with the logic behind it.

Although DADT could be a pinnacle issue as well if you look at it historically. The military was desegregated by Truman in 1948. In May 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, desegregated schools, which jump started the civil rights movement leading to all kinds of laws protecting African Americans and allotting them equal rights as their white neighbors. In a sense the military during WWII was a pretty major “work place” for Americans as well.

Marriage Equality has already begun in several states with other states taking the first step in acknowledging out of state same-sex licenses. It’s all in motion. I’m not sure any one issue is more important entirely than the others, but they seem to be working together and it looks like we’ll have proper rights in a nearer future than we may believe.

Andrew F – Columnist

Employment non-discrimination and marriage equality seem to me the key battles, mostly because I’m quite comfortable being exempt from the draft and never having to worry about giving blood, thank you very much.

hannah – Chatterbox Editor

ENDA! Right now our transgendered siblings can get fired for their gender identity. Feeling safe in the workplace should come first and foremost in our fight for equality.

Hans – Photo Editor

I’m a big believer in breaking large problems down into smaller components and attacking them individually. There are, of course, smaller and more localized problem areas to attack, but I think that the major sub-components to full legal equality are covered in ENDA, the repeal of DADT, and full (federal and state) marriage rights. We have strong advocacy groups working on DADT (SLDN) and marriage (GLAD and AFER). A trans-inclusive ENDA will require pressure on Congress, which might be aided by an angry and motivated GLBT voter base spearheaded by the likes of John Aravosis, Pam Spaulding, and David Mixner. I think we’re on the right track as far as focus goes, but we need to be prepared to follow through with threats to hold Democrats who shy away from GLBT issues after gladly taking our money and votes, and lobbying organizations who are too weak-kneed and/or elitist to cash in their political capital, accountable in a way that puts the fear of God into them (lost money, lost votes, and bad press – the holy trinity of political motivation).

J. Clarence – Columnist

All the issues mentioned are important issues, the difficulty really boils down to is where you put your resources. If you look at it from a practical standpoint it makes more sense to take smaller chunks, where you have a greater chance of getting what you want (see the backlash in Virginia after the Attorney sent a letter saying colleges do not have to include sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination clauses), than to go after the big ticket items (i.e. marriage-equality) which can be more contentious and thus less likely for you to come out victories (see marriage-equality and the amount of states with constitutional amendments defining marriage as between one man and one woman) and build a consensus from there.

The only problem with that is social-movement rarely tend to look at things from a practical standpoint but rather idealistic, i.e. “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it”. And we are all very fortunate for them doing so.

Progress in any area would help in the long-run, as once you get over the initial hurdle it becomes much easier.

In general though the queer community needs to adopt a holistic approach and not put all of its eggs in once basket (i.e. marriage equality), at the same though it should sense where the mood is within the community, or communities, and adjust appropriately and not simply say you have to get on board.

Jess Five – Contributor

The queer rights movement isn’t focusing on the right things. It has a middle class agenda. With that being said, we should focus on universal health care, homelessness, and hunger. Those are real queer issues.

Josh – Houston Editor

I’m not sure that targeting any one anti-gay policy is an effective strategy at all. Each time we defeat an antiquated law, another jackass politician introduces a new one that further limits gay rights. The other side views this as a battle and each little victory we have further inflames them and their lobbying machine. This kind of civil rights “Whack-A-Mole” is counter productive and stressful. It’s a much more effective strategy to change minds en masse so that these politicians will eventually find that there is no support amongst the constituency for anti-gay measures. The only way to do this is to make coming out a priority.

Levi – Staff Contributer

Trans-inclusive ENDA is tops in my mind. That helps and involves everyone in the community, because not all of us want to get married or join the military, but pretty much all of us have had to deal with, are dealing with, or soon will be dealing with the issue of employment in our lives. Not only that, be the ability to be open in our jobs without the fear of being terminated because of it will lead to increased visibility, which will help to further people’s understanding about GLBTQ community even more in all aspects of our society (because in all aspects of society, there is some sort of job involved/related to it).

raphael – LA Editor

NO! We are NOT focusing on the right things.

I think it’s odd how the most “heteronormative” causes (DADT and SSM) are the highest priority of the mainstream gay rights groups. I think that the most important ones are those that have the greatest impact on the largest number of people, preventing them from living normal lives:

1. Top priorities: ENDA. This should be priority #1 with a bullet. We aren’t able to earn livelihoods in some states because laws do not protect us from being fired, evicted, etc. Even if we live in a state that protects us, we are affected because we lose our protections by crossing certain state boundaries. This is a huge impact on every gay person in the country, to say nothing of our friends and families. And I can’t believe this law hasn’t been passed yet. I’d forgive Obama’s other failings to the gays if he can get this done.

Adoption laws should also be top priority because these laws are spiteful and cause real harm to kids. The impact to the parents is only secondary.

Safe schools. We should work hard to stop bullying and teen suicide.

I should probably include wage disparities and barriers to full enfranchisement of women in this category. Sexism drags us all down, ESPECIALLY the gays, including gay men.

2. On a second tier, I’d include immigration laws, like the Permanent Partners Immigration Act (PPIA). It’s terrible that our immigration laws actively destroy families. The only reason I don’t rank this higher is that most of us aren’t in binational couples.

DADT is borderline between first and second tier. I think the law hampers national security, and we should repeal it on those grounds alone. Like PPIA, current law is highly destructive to some lives, but not the majority of GLBT individuals.

3. Same-sex marriage is important, but nowhere near the importance of these other causes. I think that many of us could swallow the indignity of accepting “everything-but-the-name” arrangments in relatively liberal California, or even hobbling together a patchwork of contracts and agreements in Talibangelic Texas, as long as we have a right to pursue a livelihood and have the families we want.

I’m not sure how I feel about international human rights. On the one hand, the plight of gays in the developing world is bigger than all the issues I mentioned above. But on the other hand, I think we should fix our own homes first. Perhaps we should try to support and develop local gay rights groups in countries like Uganda, rather than encourage our own government to take a harder line on them. I don’t think we can be that productive externally unless there is a strong network in place in each country. We can’t fix the problem for them.

Health issues (like HIV) and poverty have particularities that affect the GLBT community, and we should make strong arguments for them. But I think they are both aspects of greater problems that affect society as a whole. We should collaborate with larger groups expanding health care and fighting poverty.

zack – Editor-in-Chief

I think the priority should be each and every queer person focusing on the cause that matters to them. Some people care about DADT and have the skills and resources to work on it. If someone else wants to solely work on getting DC to have genderless bathrooms, for example, that’s what they should work on. The queer community is a big one and its impossible for us to work in unison on any one cause. But all of us working on our own causes at the same time will continue to chip away at “the way things are” and start to bring about change.