The Iraq Recession Does Not Discriminate
by Keith Ellison
It has been a rough year for middle-class and poor families. Health care, child care, and unemployment rates have risen, while the foreclosure crisis has threatened homeownership and financial stability both for families who own and for families who rent. The five-year war in Iraq has resulted in massive borrowing by the U.S. government and has diverted $12 billion per month that should have been invested in priorities such as education and infrastructure here at home. Rising oil costs have driven up the price of everything from transportation to essential groceries. Fears of recession and real stories of families forced to cut back on heat or electricity have resulted in genuine concern about the possibility that uncontrolled inflation and a credit crunch could put basic necessities, let alone the American dream of prosperity and opportunity, out of reach for many of us and our neighbors.
These economic forces tug at the wallets and the worries of families everywhere, on virtually every street. And—unlike our laws and policies governing health care, retirement benefits, family and medical leave, life insurance, disability benefits, worker’s compensation, and other vital financial matters—the Iraq recession does not discriminate on the basis of the gender or the sexual orientation of the families’ heads of household. To add to this time of heightened financial stress for all, too many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people find themselves cut off from the essential family support mechanisms for which the organized labor movement fought some 100 years ago. That’s why, as I work with colleagues in Congress to repair the economic damage caused by 7 years of bad federal policy direction, I have joined with Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin to sponsor legislation (H.R. 4838) that opens the benefits and obligations of marriage to domestic partners so that LGBT families are treated equally. But addressing discrimination itself is only a part of our challenge.
I want laws that respect everyone, that protect everyone from workplace discrimination, and that strengthen the legal rights of LGBT parents and partners. I want a culture of tolerance in our schools, our communities, our government, and our military. But such fundamental and fair-minded humanitarian goals as these risk paling in times of economic distress, times when our neighbors are fearful of losing their imagined share out of a limited pie. We have already seen immigrant communities blamed for job loss and poorer people stretching for homeownership blamed for the mortgage meltdown, when it is indisputable that bad policy and inattention are truly the cause of these crises.
Friends, my mission as a public servant has never felt more urgent than now. I will continue to advocate for an end to the war in Iraq, so that my children and yours can live in a more peaceful world and can prosper in it. I will continue to advance measures to put our credit, lending, and other financial systems back on solid ground. And I will continue to advocate for the equal treatment of LGBT people and their families, an end to workplace discrimination in all its forms and uniforms, and the full inclusion of all of America in America. I hope you will join me in urging all of our elected leaders to embrace this broad vision of a fairer economy and a freer country.
Keith Ellison is the Representative to the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of Minnesota’s Fifth District. He is the first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress, and the first African American to be elected to the House from Minnesota.
