We're in the home stretch of the campaign season, and things are getting a little warm under the microscope. Wisconsin's proposed ban on civil unions and same-sex marriage is getting national attention from all sides. For example, the antics of Julaine Appling, director of Wisconsin's Family Research Institute (FRI) and leader of the Vote Yes for Marriage coalition, have been getting coverage on blogs around the country.
Of particular interest is her assertion to Madison's Isthmus weekly that "I think we've been extremely tolerant in allowing [homosexuals] to live wherever they choose." One blogger (http://labradorite.wordpress.com) noted that the original quote was in the context of a discussion about how much nicer the anti-gay movement is compared to the anti-black movement back in segregation days.
As chief spokesperson for the pro-ban side, Appling professionally works herself into denial about the impact the ban would have on gay and lesbian families. The ban would permanently lock gay couples out of all sorts of rights and benefits that straight married couples take for granted. Just one benefit we can't get: automatic tax-free inheritance of our same-sex partner's assets, including our homes which she's so benevolently allowing us to live in. We have to pay taxes on this property as if we inherited it from a total stranger.
It gets pretty expensive to be an oppressed minority around here.
Appling's having a party this Thursday at the Rose Garden in Wausau. It's called a "Celebration of Marriage: One Man & One Woman for Life." As always in FRI-land, some people are treated better than others.
Just to rub it in, the ticket prices are on a sliding scale: single person, $25; married couple, $40; and if you've had the privilege of being married for 25 years or more, $30 per couple. What a bargain! On the other hand, that makes the second married partner worth 20 percent of a single person, if you want to look at it that way. I can't guess which spouse FRI thinks depreciates 80 percent over the course of 25 years, but science may have the answer: research has recently shown that women's longevity decreases with marriage, while men's increases. Huh, maybe Julaine's onto something with her pricing structure.
Appling is a never-married, childless woman, so as recently as 75 years ago, she wouldn't have been allowed to own property in some states. Her dad or her brother would have had to conduct all her transactions. I hope FRI and Appling know that's just wrong. America should be beyond second-class citizenship -- for anybody -- by now.
Researching that property issue, I found a great quote from a banner used in the women's suffrage movement. The quote happens to use Wisconsin's state motto prominently, and I hope we live up to it on election day: "Forward out of darkness. Leave behind the night. Forward out of error. Forward into light."
Jennifer Morales is an elected member of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, the first person of Latino descent to hold that position. She was first elected in 2001 and was unopposed for re-election in 2005. In 2004, she ran for a seat in the Wisconsin state senate, earning 43% of the vote against a 12-year incumbent.
Previously, she served as the editorial assistant at the educational journal Rethinking Schools; as assistant director of two education policy research centers at UW-Milwaukee; and as the development director for 9to5, National Association of Working Women.
She became the first person in her immediate family to graduate from college, earning a B.A. in Modern Languages and Literatures from Beloit College in 1991.
In addition to her work on the school board, she is a freelance editorial consultant and a mother.
