No law to protect gays was needed

The Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), outlawing discrimination against gays in the workforce. Republican Sen. Dean Heller joined Democratic Sen. Harry Reid in voting for the bill, enabling it to pass.

Sen. Heller once said that he first asks if a bill expands human freedom. ENDA certainly does not expand freedom for the employer, codifying another regulation to deal with. Perhaps Sen. Heller thought that since Nevada already has a similar law, passing it would inflict the same pain on states we compete with. Or perhaps he wished to send the message he is more gay-friendly than other Republicans. But why at the expense of freedom of contract?

Larger companies with sophisticated human resources departments always have the easiest time complying with anti-discrimination regulations. Smaller businesses are less able to comply. Trial lawyers will benefit, while consumers will suffer, because these laws divert resources from the business itself to compliance with bureaucratic demands. The best way to eliminate discrimination is to work for general prosperity. Civil society should continue to emphasize the dignity of all humans. Speaker Boehner has promised opposition in the House.

I was living in New York City in June 1969 when the Stonewall Riots happened. I met some of the queens who stood up to the police and started the most successful civil rights movement in human history. Young people may not remember that gays had nowhere by law to socialize except mafia run underground gay bars. One of these bars, the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, erupted in violent confrontations between police and the gay clientele when the humiliating monthly police raid didn’t go down as usual. The riots lasted for several nights as the illegal cross dressers resisted arrest and fought the morals police with everything from purses to bricks. It made sensational front page news because the entire gay scene was so deeply undercover.

Soon the Gay Liberation Front was formed, and the cat was out of the bag. By the late 1990s, the tide dramatically turned, as the TV comedy show Will and Grace showed Middle America that life includes nice people who happen to be gay. The gay marriage movement has only reinforced the idea, because, well, everyone loves a wedding! It is a remarkable testament to human liberation that in such short time the love that used to know no name, was considered a mental disorder, and was the center of numerous blackmail schemes, is now shouted from the rooftops.

In Nevada, the biggest political battle may be over the constitutional amendment that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman. A few Republicans spoke up in dissent at their conventions, but the Republican platforms in Nevada are anti-gay marriage. Because those who believe the State should enforce “Judeo Christian” sexual morality are heavily involved in the Republican Party, any deviation is currently intolerable. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada is trying to overturn the ban on gay marriage by lawsuit, which if successful could infuriate social conservatives more. Millennials are firmly in favor of gay marriage, and they are the future of the party. The Republican Party is risking its future if it continues to cater to the suppression of legitimate gay rights.

This confrontational mind set is not helped by gay overreach. When photographers are sued because they do not want to work on a gay marriage, then the right to be left alone comes up against compelled association. Find another photographer who would love to take pictures at your wedding. Instead of making a federal case out of freedom to associate, let’s allow for major victories and work so both sides can end the culture wars.