Transcripts

PAT KESSLER: It's been six years since the Minnesota legislature took up the issue of gay rights. Now, as then, it is an issue of great controversy. The bill by Democratic Senator Allan Spear would prohibit discrimination against homosexuals in the areas of housing, employment, credit, and public accommodations. It is the kind of human rights protection, says Spear, already given to other minority groups.

ALLAN SPEAR: It prohibits random and arbitrary restrictions in the right to obtain the basic necessities of life being placed on people simply because of what their sexual or affectional orientation happens to be. This is not special privilege. This is no more, no less than any citizen is entitled to.

PAT KESSLER: Senator Spear, who is himself a homosexual, admits that the issue of homosexual rights generates fear and great apprehension. But he says this bill is not about morality or immorality, nor, he says, is it about choice.

ALLAN SPEAR: Living in the closet is hell. And I can speak on that from personal experience because I was in the closet for 20 years. When I first became aware of my homosexuality as an adolescent, I can assure you that I wish desperately to be, quote, "normal," unquote.

It's not very likely that as a 15-year-old growing up in a small city in Indiana, I would have chosen to be gay. Such a choice meant the possibility of rejection by family and friends, the possibility of a lost career.

The choice that gay men and lesbians have to make is how to deal with their sexual orientation, whether to accept oneself as I ultimately did, and as more and more gay men and lesbians are doing today. That's a choice. One's sexual orientation is not.

DOROTHY LUDWIG: Once gay, always gay is a lie.

PAT KESSLER: Opponents said there are questions which go beyond legal rights. Dorothy Ludwig, who identified herself as a former lesbian, said there is a question of right and wrong.

DOROTHY LUDWIG: It can be changed and it can be changed because one is willing to acknowledge the fact that it's wrong, is willing to make the choices that one needs to make to resist the temptation that's there, just as can any other kind of acting out of my sexuality.

Whether that be adultery, or sodomy, or rape, or whatever, I have that choice of refusing to act it out. Just because something is legal does not mean it's right.

PAT KESSLER: It is not basic rights which worries opponents of gay rights. Instead, said Sandy Singer, it is special rights for a privileged class that is dangerous.

SANDY SINGER: I believe that homosexuals enjoy the same basic freedoms as all citizens. They vote and they travel at will. They hold public office, they attend schools, they hold jobs, they ride buses, they drive cars. I don't think basic freedoms are being denied.

PAT KESSLER: The emotions and the myths and the realities about homosexuality cannot always be explained, said Jennifer Feigel, a lesbian mother of two. And just because it cannot be understood, she said, does not mean rights should be denied.

JENNIFER FEIGEL: We are not the sick and slimy characters so often portrayed in the movies, the old movies, and some of the new ones too. We do not prey on children. We are your families. We're your daughters and your mothers. We're your sisters and we're your grandmothers.

PAT KESSLER: The Judiciary Committee voted 8 to 6 to approve the gay rights bill. All eight yes votes came from Democrats. The six Republicans voted no. The bill now goes to the Senate floor for debate. This is Pat Kessler at the Capitol.