Subject: "a national embarassment for Wisconsin" Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 07:30:46 -0500 Message-ID: <B14120EE5C432443B21102F7925DAD020235F5C8@COKE.uwec.edu> From: "Hale, C. Kate" <HALECL@uwec.edu>
From yesterday's _Cap Times_
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.php?ntid=41831&ntpid=0
Editorial: Gard's national embarrassment
May 31, 2005
Assembly Speaker John Gard's decision to appoint an extremist group as
the
Legislature's counsel in the fight over whether to extend health
benefits
to the domestic partners of state workers has evolved into a national
embarrassment for Wisconsin.
Unwilling to trust Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and the state
Department of Justice to do their job, Gard brought in the Alliance
Defense
Fund, an Arizona legal firm that is closely tied to far-right religious
and
political groups, to oppose a lawsuit that seeks health insurance for
domestic partners. Gard, who seems to have become obsessed with denying
protections to gays and lesbians, is concerned that the lawsuit might
force
the state to stop discriminating. And, apparently because its principals
share his homophobia, Gard believes the Alliance Defense Fund team will
do
a better job of promoting his agenda than Wisconsin lawyers would.
Unfortunately, the Alliance Defense Fund has been associated with some
of
the wackier instances of anti-gay extremism to surface in recent years.
The
fund's co-founder has devoted inordinate amounts of time to arguing that
the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants is gay. He has also called
for
a "second civil war" - over cultural issues - in the United States.
As Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, correctly noted after the controversy
heated
up last week: "If bringing in fringe extremists who think cartoon
characters are gay is the only way to fight providing health care
benefits
to Wisconsin families, it is a sad day in Wisconsin."
Just how sad is rapidly becoming evident.
Gard's decision to make Wisconsin the first state in the country to
align
with the extremists at the Alliance Defense Fund is drawing negative
attention far beyond the state's borders.
Noting the legal firm's history of fierce opposition to equal treatment
for
all citizens, Joe Solmonese, the president of the Washington-based Human
Rights Campaign, condemned Gard's move. "This group is far from unbiased
and the people of Wisconsin did not elect it to speak for them,"
Solmonese
said. "Wisconsinites did elect the attorney general, who should be the
one
seeing this case through. The Legislature has seriously overstepped its
bounds."
Solmonese, who heads the nation's largest lesbian and gay political
organization, explained that "Wisconsin's interest is best served with
an
unbiased, thoughtful assessment regarding equal employment benefits.
Employees with same-sex partners are now doing equal work for less
compensation. Domestic partner benefits make good business sense. They
enhance an employer's overall compensation package with negligible cost
to
the company and are a hallmark of whether a company values diversity. If
the Legislature is hearing from the Alliance Defense Fund, I urge
legislators to also hear from companies in the state that have already
learned these lessons."
More than 60 major corporations in Wisconsin offer domestic partner
benefits to their employees. They include Miller Brewing Co., American
Family Insurance Group, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, and SC
Johnson
& Son Inc. In addition, 11 states - California, Connecticut, Illinois,
Iowa, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont
and
Washington - provide these benefits. In Massachusetts, where same-sex
couples are allowed to marry, equal access to benefits is also assured.
The debate over same-sex marriage is far from being settled in
Wisconsin,
or nationally. But Wisconsin, which has a better history than most
states
of protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation, ought
not
be bringing in extremist groups to represent the Legislature in this
fight.
Gard should back off his relationship with the Alliance Defense Fund. If
he
fails to do so, then legislative Republicans really need to ask whether
they want the state's good name to be associated with a fringe group
that
specializes in "exposing" cartoon characters and calling for a new civil
war. In particular, Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, the Richland
Center Republican who is one of the Legislature's saner members, needs
to
distance himself from Gard's madness.
Published: 8:03 AM 5/31/05