Gays Deserve Reparation Checks

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 7, 2009 5:52 PM CDT

(Newser) – “The time has arrived to place economic reparations for gay and lesbian Americans on the political agenda,” Jacob Appel writes in the Detroit Free Press. Equality under the law is inevitable, if still a few years out; meantime, homosexuals must be compensated for their trouble. “While the financial losses” suffered “as a result of state-sanctioned discrimination may prove challenging to quantify, they are real.”

“A second purpose of reparations is to express moral opprobrium,” Appel writes. A check can’t cure all the wounds of being a second-class citizen, but “the admission of collective culpability behind such payments might offer a first step toward reconciliation.” Will straight people try to game the system? No, Appel writes. We’re still far from the day when a hetero cheater “possesses enough confidence in his own sexuality to impersonate a homosexual.”

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Laura Fefchak, right, and Nancy Robinson, center, of Urbandale, Iowa, react to the ruling from the Iowa Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage. (AP Photo)

Marchers walk down the steps of the Statehouse in Montpelier, Vt. during a protest against same sex marriage. (AP Photo)

Kristin Orbin, right, and partner Teresa Rowe embrace as they watch court proceedings during a demonstration on the issue of Proposition 8 in San Francisco. (AP Photo)

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Calculating the lost wages and benefits of workers terminated solely because of their sexual orientation may prove impossible, but countless men and women have suffered this fate without recourse. - Jacob Appel

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 9 comments

justme

Apr 8, 2009 12:23 PM CDT

Every group you can name (ethnic, religious etc.) has been discriminated against. Each has had to make their way into mainstream America. Change the laws to promote equality? YES. Hand holding, reparations, and all other protected class crap? No way in H.

Doctor-Zaius

Apr 8, 2009 10:49 AM CDT

I'm actually starting to wonder if the guy who wrote this is serious. Reading the article it came across as a serious piece but you never know.

paul123

Apr 8, 2009 8:49 AM CDT

If it means i can get some govt cheese, I'll say I'm gay. You will see lots of people do this. FAIL

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Detroit Free Press (Source Grid »)

gay rights • gay marriage • equality • workplace discrimination • civil rights • gays • reparations • second-class citizen

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