As tributes and obituaries pour in about Sen. Edward Kennedy, his support of the LGBT community has been widely overlooked.
In 2006, when Massachusetts Republicans wanted to pass a so-called “Marriage Protection Amendment,” Kennedy called it “a wholly inappropriate effort to override state courts and to intrude into individuals’ private lives.”
He said, “Gay and lesbian couples deserve the same rights as married couples under state law.”
Kennedy was the original Senate sponsor of what is now the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill. In 1994, he was the original Senate sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Later, he became the first senator to call for expansion of ENDA to include trangenders.
He voted against the Defense of Marriage Act and is credited with leading the charge against the Federal Marriage Amendment in the Senate.
The health care debate in the Senate has been difficult without Kennedy’s presence this summer. Known as the senator who pulled both sides together and worked out compromises, no one else has filled that role.
In 2007, when the Bush administration tried to appoint James Holsinger as surgeon general, Kennedy opposed and eventually derailed the nomination. “The Office of the Surgeon General has become a morass of shameful political manipulation and distortion of science,” Kennedy said.
He quoted a questionable study the doctor had done on the dangerous effects of sex between gay men. The position remained unfilled through the rest of Bush’s term.
At the time of his death, Kennedy was working with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to find a Republican co-sponsor to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
No other senator has worked as tirelessly for the LGBT community and his leadership in the Senate will be missed.
— David Taffet
And, of course, Kennedy is responsible for passage of Ryan White AIDS funding.
Ted Kennedy will go down in history as one of the greatest Americans ever. He defined for a generation what it meant to be a progressive. My first real exposure to politics was his presidential campaign in 1980. I went to my first Texas Democratic Convention ever in support of his candidacy.
I went to the New York Times website and watched a streaming video of his famous 1980 national convention speech. I wept just like I did when I first heard it. It reminded me so much of what first inspired me to get involved – his uncompromising vision of economic and social justice.
I was a delegate to the 1992 Democratic national convetion. One of the two greatest moments was meeting and getting my foto with Sen. Kennedy at the LGBT caucus. The second was a trully great party in a penthouse overlooking central park at nite.
And the Americans with Disabilities Act, which covers persons living with HIV/AIDS
Thank you Ted for everything you did for everyone in this country, especially the minorities, and the less fortunate. You did the right thing and fought for those who counldn’t fight for themselves. You stood for the working class, good jobs, health care, and equal rights for everyone in their personal and working lives. I’m proud to say you were one of my Senators from 1962 until I left Boston in 1983. I certainly wish I could say the same for ours now. RIP.
Thank you Senator Kennedy for all the support you gave and the good you did while on this earth; may your creator be the one to decide wrongs or rights…not the public. Thank you for being a support and friend of my community and helping my partner and I to live a better life. Our condolences to your family; may you rest in peace with your brothers, sisters and parents.