Laws violate gay rightsWhen I was in third grade, I learned that there are some "unalienable rights": the right to life, to liberty and the pursuit of happiness – all that the United States government is committed to protecting for every human being. Last week I learned that this government believes these human rights are limited to some people, based on how they choose to engage in sex. Last week, in two separate bills, the US Senate sanctioned discrimination against homosexual Americans. The issue came to light recently in Hawaii, when the state denied marriage privileges to a lesbian couple. In May 1993, the state Supreme Court ruled in a 3-1 decision that the state's exclusion of same-sex marriage was sex discrimination and therefore unconstitutional unless there was "compelling evidence" to regard. In 1995, a government commission recommended that the state grant marital rights to homosexuals. The "full faith and credit" clause of the U.S. Constitution states that states must accord reciprocity to the laws (and contracts) of other states. So a couple could get married in Hawaii, move to another state, and ask the state to recognize their marriage contract unless the new state's laws are in direct conflict with the previous state's laws. This led the House to pass the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) this July with the Senate concurring on September 10. Social Security, veterans, and other federal benefits such as married tax status will simply be denied to Americans who do not conform to a sexual model preferred by others in society. I don't know where in the Constitution Congress can legislate the morality that a man must marry a woman. Additionally, DoMA allows states to… middle of paper… others may make some people uncomfortable. But their union does not infringe on anyone else's life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness, and they have the right to pursue their human rights and to marry each other. What does Congress have to gain by passing this restrictive law? It is only election year politics that woos the radical right. The US government is unfairly discriminating against a portion of the US population and we should not support this public “gay bashing.” Discrimination is still legal because the measure failed. -49. Sen. Pryor (D-Ark.) was attending his son's cancer surgery; otherwise he would have supported the bill. Vice President Al Gore had promised to resolve the dispute in support of the bill, but the motion failed. It is now legally acceptable not to hire someone based on their sexual preferences.