Right-wing extremists often refer to "the gay agenda" in the most menacing terms, as if it threatened everything that Americans hold dear, and as if there were something "wrong" or "dangerous" about a group of Americans campaigning for fair play, justice, and equal treatment. In fact like many other Americans, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities do have an agenda of public policy goals. These include planks that many Americans take for granted in a democratic society, but they also include planks that would extend fairness, equality, and compassion to everyone. Here are some of our basic goals:

1)      BASIC PROTECTIONS AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

For decades, lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals were explicitly excluded by law from major areas of employment in the public and private sector. The federal government led the way with a 1953 Executive Order that prohibited the employment of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in all federal jobs. Hostility to homosexuality justified widespread discrimination in employment, housing, education, and other areas of economic and social life.

Today, in most parts of the country, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people still have no legal recourse against arbitrary discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Twenty surveys of lesbian and gay men done in the 1980's and 1990's documented widespread discrimination, with figures ranging between 16 and 44 percent of those responding reporting employment discrimination.

Only nine states and fewer than 130 cities or counties have amended their civil rights statutes to include sexual orientation. In the rest of the country employers can fire someone from their job, banks can deny credit, realtors can refuse to rent or sell housing, and insurance companies can refuse to sell policies to individuals simply because they dislike or disapprove of someone being gay.

The denial of access to employment or housing solely because of prejudice is a fundamental denial of basic rights that every American should have. Since the passage of historic civil rights legislation in the 1960's, important advances have been made to attack discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, sex, and disability. Rather than turn back the clock to an earlier era when there was no legal recourse against discrimination, existing civil rights legislation at the federal, state, and local levels should be extended to include sexual orientation and gender identity. This is essential to guarantee that lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people will enjoy the same basic civil rights as other Americans.

2)      FREEDOM FROM GOVERNMENT INTRUSION INTO OUR INTIMATE LIVES

Laws prohibiting sodomy and other forms of same-gender consensual sexual behavior have been a baseline from which other penalties against lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people have grown. Though there has been a move toward repeal of those laws in the last generation, 22 states still have sodomy, or "crimes against nature," statutes. In some of these states, penalties range upward of 10 years.

Regardless of whether these laws are vigorously enforced, their existence has the effect of criminalizing the intimate relationships of a segment of the population. They are also invoked to justify job discrimination [ "how can we hire a criminal?"], and other penalties. Repeal of all remaining sodomy statutes is an essential element in the quest of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people for equality and justice.

3)      THE EXPECTATION OF PHYSICAL SAFETY AND PROTECTION FROM HATE MOTIVATED CRIME

The current climate of hatred and divisiveness, created and supported by right wing extremists, has led to an increase in crimes of prejudice based on race, national origin and religion as well as on sexual orientation. Because of the climate of hatred against homosexuality, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people are frequent targets of hate-motivated crimes ranging from verbal harassment and assault to brutal murders. Incidents have risen sine the first studies were done: 172% in five major cities between 1988 and 1992. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs documented 2,2000 incidents in 11 major cities in 1995 alone. In parts of the country that have faced anti-gay ballot initiatives, reported incidents of violence have risen dramatically. And, because law enforcement agencies have often been active in the harassment and arrest of gay people, victims of hate-motivated violence are often reluctant to report these crimes to the police.

Everyone deserves to know that they can walk the streets, enjoy public spaces, and sit in their homes free from harassment, abuse, and violence directed at them simply because of who they are. An aggressive campaign against hate-motivated violence, including training of law enforcement officials, punishments to deter such crimes, efforts to eliminate or reduce the rhetoric which makes such crimes seem acceptable, and education of the public about its seriousness and extent, is necessary to insure the safety of lesbians, gay man, bisexuals, and transgender people and others who are targeted for violence solely because of their race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.

4)      THE RECOGNITION OF OUR FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

Nowhere in the United States do lesbian or gay couples receive the same recognition or benefits that married heterosexuals do. In fact they face tremendous discrimination. Lesbians and gay men can be turned away at the hospital when a partner has an accident or illness; lack access to family health coverage and other forms of insurance; are denied the benefits of inheritance and taxation that heterosexual spouses automatically enjoy; and have no rights to a range of government benefits, despite the fact that they pay taxes like other Americans do.

In many workplace situations, employee "fringe" benefits comprise as much as 40 percent of a worker's total compensation. Marital status most often determines eligibility for sick, bereavement or parenting leave, health and dental insurance, and disability and retirement benefits.

The recognition of same-gender partner, or spousal, relationships by private employers and federal, state, and local governments is a basic issue of equity and fairness.

5)      THE RIGHT TO PARENT

Conflicts over child custody and visitation rights bring more lesbians and gay men into courtrooms in the U. S. than any other issue. Courts in many states have made rulings on the presumption that lesbians and gay men are unfit to have custody simply because of their sexual orientation, rather than focusing on the best interest of the child. Almost every state refuses to allow two adults of the same gender to be the legal parents of a child. And a growing numbers of states either explicitly ban adoption or foster parenting by lesbian and gay couples or are seeking to do so. All of this occurs despite the results of dozens of reputable scientific studies that demonstrate that lesbians and gay men are neither more or less likely to raise emotionally stable children.

The right to bear and raise children without restrictions based on sexual orientation is a key message of the status of gay men and lesbians. Equality in this area would include freedom from the threat of losing access to one's children on the basis of sexual orientation; equal access to alternative insemination; the ability to adopt or become foster parents without arbitrary restrictions; and recognizing and protecting the rights of non-biological parents in gay and lesbian households.

6)      ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

In the last generation, health care costs have skyrocketed, and the number of Americans without health insurance has grown dramatically. More recently, efforts to balance the federal budget have placed programs like Medicare and Medicaid in jeopardy.

From AIDS to breast cancer and other forms of serious illness, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities have faced in recent years their own version of a serious medical emergency. While government funds for certain diseases such as AIDS have grown in recent years, the availability of health care remains closely tied to access to insurance and the ability to pay for increasingly expensive forms of medical care. Proposals to cut Medicaid funding or to give states greater freedom to exclude people from its coverage would have a devastating effect on lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people, many of whom depend on it.

Health care reform, including universal access to medical care, is a widely held goal of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people, as it is for most other Americans.

7)      SCHOOLS THAT CARE FOR AND PROTECT ALL OF THEIR STUDENTS

Youth who identify as lesbians, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who find themselves questioning their sexual orientation, need a nurturing and protecting school environment, as do all other students. The threat of violence and abuse against such students, from verbal harassment to assault is all too common in our school systems. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents need to know that the public schools will provide an environment that teaches respect for the individual and for the variety of family forms in which children are being raised. Teachers and other school personnel need to know that their jobs will not be in jeopardy simply because of their sexual orientation.

At a minimum public school systems need to create an environment through curriculum content, counseling services, and personnel and other policies, that teachers respect for the wide range of families from which this generation of children comes, that provides accurate, nonjudgmental information about sexuality and sexual identity that promises a swift reliable response to incidents of harassment and violence, and that guarantees non-discriminatory policies toward its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender personnel.

8)      A FAIR CHANCE FOR EVERY CHILD

Every child deserves to have a fair chance in life. No child deserves to be penalized for the histories of inequality that our society has imposed on massive numbers of Americans. And, since the next generation of children who will be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender will be found across the social and economic spectrum, a public policy agenda for the community needs to address the broad range of life-critical issues that Americans face.

At a minimum this would include: jobs at a living wage for every adult wishing to work; affordable child care for every working parent; access to health care as a basic human right; an adequately funded system of elementary and secondary education that doesn't penalize children raised in school districts with a weak tax base; a system of publicly funded higher education that places college within the financial reach of anyone who is able to attend.

9)      HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL

Ultimately, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are working for a world that recognizes the human rights of everyone and in which compassion, justice, cooperation, and respect are primary values. Food, shelter, education, health care and physical safety are basic human rights that need to be guaranteed for all.