In Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1965, Martin Luther King Jr famously measured the time in the struggle for racial equality might achieve its goal, "How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
The pointed reaction to Minnesota state representative Glenn Gruenhagen's introduction of "ex-gay" Kevin Petersen--who partnered with the Glencoe Republican last February to form the Pro-Marriage Amendment Forum last year--suggested that the arc is bending toward completion.
Paired with an October 18, 1993 Star Tribune article, "Gay rights: A moral issue or a civil rights question" by Jeremy Iggers (Nexis only, sorry), that reaction clearly illustrates the long arc of justice and fairness for all Minnesota families.
Twenty years ago, the Star Tribune gathered readers in a series of roundtables about pressing issues of the day. One issue that the state legislature debated and settled into law that year: equal protection for LGBT people in housing, employment, and public accommodation.
Glencoe insurance man Glenn Gruenhagen put a cameo appearance in Iggers' report:
Most of the other Roundtable discussions of gay and lesbian civil rights probably weren't as lively as the one that took place in the basement community meeting room at the public library in Hutchinson. But the sharp divisions that emerged in the Hutchinson conversation may be a more accurate reflection of the mood of Minnesota than the near-unanimous agreement reported by many of the other Roundtables.Although a majority of the two dozen men and women who participated in the Hutchinson meeting favored protections for gays and lesbians against discrimination in housing and employment, about a quarter believed that homosexuality is immoral and felt that gays should not be given such protections. They made up a minority significant enough to engage the entire group in a spirited discussion of their views and values.
. . . At the Roundtable meeting in Hutchinson, no consensus on gay and lesbian civil rights was possible. But in the course of their two hours of discussion, the men and women of Hutchinson developed a working solution to a problem that may be even more pressing than gay and lesbian civil rights: In a society that is deeply divided about fundamental values, how can we all live together in harmony?
It was an especially interesting question in Hutchinson, where there are few openly gay men and women. Last year a local high school student created an uproar when he attempted to organize a Gay Pride event. Publicity in the newspaper resulted in harassment for him at school and harassing phone calls to his family.
"This is a homophobic town," said Roundtable participant Abigail Elder, a recent college graduate who grew up in Hutchinson. "To support gay rights here means that you yourself must be gay . . . if you were gay, would you stay in a town that was openly hostile?"
Like many other communities, Hutchinson may still be wrestling with issues of tolerance. But in the smaller and more intimate setting of the library meeting room, men and women with sharply divided views found that, yes, they all could all get along. The key seemed to be respect, and a willingness to listen.
This willingness was put to the test when Glenn Gruenhagen, an insurance agency manager from Glencoe, explained his views on homosexuality.
"Sodomy - whether practiced between a man and a woman or two men - is wrong," Gruenhagen told the largely skeptical audience. "It's a medically proven unhealthy lifestyle. When you know the medical facts about sodomy, you would not practice it. It's wrong. That's why we have a state law against the practice of sodomy."
Although most of the other participants disagreed with Gruenhagen, he received a respectful hearing. And Gruenhagen, for his part, made efforts to meet his audience halfway: Although he spoke from deep religious conviction, he made careful efforts to avoid relying on religious arguments. Instead, he based his arguments on medicine and science.
That was 1993 but Gruenhagen's arguments haven't changed much. The laws to which Gruenhagen aludes were struck down in Doe et al. v. Ventura et al. in 2001. The medical and scientific communities have moved on.
As for Hutchinson, it's still fairly conservative, but the young gay men and lesbians I know seem comfortable in their skin, quietly out. There's still no LGBT student club at the Hutch campus of Ridgewater College, although there's a club on the larger Willmar campus. Reader Steven Schiroo notes in our comment section: Ridgewater Hutchinson campus does have a LGBT group (PRISM), or at least it still did last semester.
The young folks I know who are in their 20s are typical millennials, cheerful and cooperative, possessed of a sense of justice, so there's a sense that same-sex marriage is mostly a matter of fairness. Many are married or finding partners--and the young marrieds wish their gay and lesbian friends to be able to wed the ones they love, just as they married, often with their queer friends at their sides as best man, groom or bride's maid.
Their gay friends have worked hard at school and jobs, served this country as they have and taken up the same adult responsibilities. It goes against their values that anyone should be denied basic American freedoms, just because of who they are and who they love.
And it's not a particularly partisan sense. It's a sense of fairness, of not needing to "fix" each other, but to support each other as they find and declare their loves. It's Minnesota at its best.
Bills to legalize same sex marriage get their first hearing today in the Minnesota legislature. The arc is long, but it does seem bending to serve my young friends' sense of fairness. Let's make this happen.
Screenshot: Via Facebook friend Jake Loesch of Minnesotans United, this screengrab illustrates the contrast between Planet Glenn and my young friends' dreams.
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Worth Noting: Ridgewater Hutchinson campus does have a LGBT group (PRISM), or at least it still did last semester, but I can't speak for how active it may or may not be.
Posted by: Steven Schiroo | Mar 12, 2013 at 05:42 AM