A Voice in Society

A truly functional democracy depends on the ability of everyone to have a voice—a chance to contribute their views and perspectives, and to have them heard and respected.

That everyone be able to participate in public debate, in decisions that affect us, and to be part of the social and cultural life of that nation is essential to our ability to achieve our full potential, as individuals and together.

Recent news has shown advancement in this notion of voice. The first is the administration's announcement that the 2010 census would, for the first time count same-sex marriages. Second, the Supreme Court let stand a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

On June 19th the administration made their announcement about the 2010 census. This is a significant departure from censuses past. The 2000 census does have data on gay couples who checked "unmarried partner." (Gay couples who ticked the "married" box were reclassified as unmarried partners.) In 1990, gay couples who checked the "married" box were simply reclassified as heterosexual. A demographer at the Brookings Institution, William Frey, believes this census will "open people's eyes" to the number of gay men and women living in the United States, thereby making issues such as their right to marry harder to avoid.

(FYI: After the last census, the Urban Institute took a look and analyzed the results to provide some more information on gay and lesbian demographics. Read more here.)

While this is an important step forward, as the Urban Institute points out, as is the census will continue to undercount single gay men and lesbians because—estimates in 2001 put—only about a quarter of gay men and two-fifths of lesbians in couples at any given time.

Turning the Voting Rights Act, a Supreme Court ruling this week keeps Section 5 in place. As a result certain jurisdictions will continue to require permission from the attorney general of the United States or a federal court in order to make voting changes.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended the practice of many Southern municipalities from finding ways of preventing African Americans from voting. Past practices included impossible to pass "literacy" tests (which were selectively applied).

While detractors argue that the law is no longer needed because times have changed, as Clarence Thomas argued in his dissent, this is simply not true. Recent examples of voter discrimination abound:

• In 2001, in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act prevented Kilmichael, Mississippi from cancelling an election after discovering, post the 2000 census, that African Americans were now a majority of the population.

• Waller, Texas county officials were prevented, under Section 5, of reducing early voting in an attempt to prevent students at a historically black university from voting in primaries. (The county has a history of black student voter intimidation including indictments and threats of persecution through the 1990s and 2000s.

• Since the 1960s, every initially submitted post-Census redistricting plan by the Louisiana State House has been rejected as discriminatory under Section 5 and the same is true of every initial Texas State House plan since the 1970s.

These are two strong steps as we move towards giving voice to everyone in our society.