Executive Director of the Lambda Legal Defense Fund Kevin Cathcart urged more than 100 people who attended his lecture in Rockefeller Center yesterday to write to New Hampshire Governor Steve Merrill in support of gay rights legislation.
Cathcart's entreaty comes two days after the New Hampshire House voted overwhelmingly to ban job and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation. Last month Merrill publicly voiced his opposition to the bill and said he would veto it.
Cathcart's speech was titled "Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues in the Nineties."
"If New Hampshire had a statewide gay rights ordinance on the books, gays and lesbians here could live their lives openly and hopefully other states would follow suit," Cathcart said.
Many gays and lesbians cannot be truthful about their sexuality, he added.
"If they feel like their housing and employment are in jeopardy, gays and lesbians are going to keep quiet about their sexuality," he said. "Our movement is based on people not keeping quiet."
According to Cathcart, anti-gay referendums are sweeping the country and are replacing the abortion movement in American society.
Anti-gay ballot initiatives are in progress in Florida, Oregon, Maine and a range of other states, he said.
The biggest legal issues facing gays and lesbians this decade are anti-gay referendums, military discrimination, HIV and AIDS-related problems, and family legal concerns, Cathcart said.
Cathcart's speech also touched upon the recent controversy concerning gays in the military.
"The 'don't ask, don't tell' policy is unworkable, a complete window-dressing change from the previous policy," he said. "The military is the largest single employer in the country, yet more people are fired from the military on the basis of sexual orientation than a range of civilian jobs put together."
The Lambda Legal Defense Fund currently has court cases in progress in 26 or 27 states, according to Cathcart.
The Lambda Legal Defense Fund, founded in 1973, handles cases that have had many previous failures in the legal system, Cathcart said.
The speech was co-sponsored by the Carpenter Foundation and the Dartmouth Gay and Lesbian Organization. It was the first of the Dartmouth Lawyers Association lecture series.
