Same-sex climate a hot issue

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By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star

Melissa Rigney lived in Nebraska for 10 years, earning her Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

When it came time for her and her partner to decide where to buy a home, they considered Omaha. But a couple of months ago, they left Nebraska.

“A lot of it has to do with the political climate,” Rigney said last week from her home in Corpus Christi, Texas.

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George Kleine (right), of Omaha, and Emily Trask (second from right), of Lincoln, hold hands during a protest staged in July 2006 by the Lincoln gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community in response to the reinstated Nebraska ban on same-sex marriage. (LJS file)

Rigney and her partner are a same-sex couple, and they were disheartened with both the legal climate in Nebraska and the attitude displayed toward homosexuals.

She teaches online and can do her job from anywhere.

While the legal climate isn’t a lot different in Texas, Rigney has found that the social atmosphere is refreshing and more diverse. She feels more accepted in her new home, not far from Padre Island’s seashore.

Nebraska actually is one of the 10 fastest growing states in terms of the number of same-sex couples. According to census figures, the number of same-sex partner households grew to 2,332 between 1990 and 2000, a 413 percent increase.

That doesn’t mean more same-sex couples are moving to Nebraska. It’s more likely an indication that those who are already here are more comfortable checking the box on the census form that says the other person living in the house is an unmarried partner.

The census does not ask about sexual orientation, so there is no official count on the number of homosexual people living in Nebraska. But compared with other states, Nebraska ranked 48th in the percent of people in same-sex couples, with those 2,000 or so couples representing .27 percent of the state’s population.

In fact, a good many homosexual singles and couples are leaving Nebraska for more welcoming communities in other states.

Some are choosing to live across the Missouri River in Iowa, keeping their Nebraska jobs but paying taxes to a state that protects them against discrimination. Iowa legislators passed a law this year that will protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, public accommodations, credit, housing and education.

Other states have laws that offer benefits and prevent discrimination. California and Washington have domestic partner registries that give some of the same rights that married couples have, including rights to hospital visitation, participation in medical decisions and inheritance.

Some call Nebraska’s Defense of Marriage Act extreme compared with similar laws in other states because it appears to block a wide variety of rights for gay people, not just the right to marry.

Michael Gordon, executive director of Nebraska’s Citizens for Equal Protection, said a lot of same-sex couples with children have left the state. And businesses looking to relocate have decided against Nebraska because of the unwelcoming attitude and legal atmosphere.

“Just the social climate drives people away,” Gordon said. “We send a message every day we’re not the most friendly place, unless you’re married with children.”

What makes people stay, he said, is friends, family and the cost of living. And once you get to a certain age — he’s 49 — it’s difficult to pull up stakes and move.

There is hope for the state, he said. With term limits, more progressive candidates are being elected to the Legislature. And more are looking to run next year.

Although the Nebraska Legislature this spring killed LB475, a bill that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace, Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek said it is just a matter of time before such a bill will pass.

“I see a lot of tides turning after the next election,” Gordon said.

Doane College senior Luke Peterson is one who has decided to stay and fight.

Peterson is from Phelps County, population 9,747 (same-sex households, 12), but plans to move soon to Lincoln.

“I feel there is a purpose for me here,” he said.

He lost a job in 2003 at a fast-food restaurant in Crete because of his sexual orientation, he said.

“It mainly hurt,” he said. “I do not want to see another person get fired for who they are.”

He’s a member of the GLBT Democratic caucus and testified this year before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on LB475. He also wrote letters to state senators on numerous bills. He would like to testify in Washington, D.C., on the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act reintroduced this year that would make it illegal to fire, refuse to hire or refuse to promote an employee based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Peterson came out publicly as a gay man in college, but he has known his sexual orientation since he was 13.

And he knows people who have left the state because of its legal and social unfriendliness.

“People will branch out,” he said. “But they will come back home. This is the good life.”

Still, politically involved people are getting fed up, he said.

“They’re not going to take no for an answer anymore. They are going to speak out louder. If you’re conservative and believe the status quo is here to stay, you have another think coming,” he said.

For Melissa Rigney, the hope for Nebraska is gone. She’s not coming back to a state whose political representatives don’t stand up for gay people, or to a university that refuses to offer domestic partner benefits.

“Nebraska taxpayers paid for my education,” she said. “Now that tax money is leaving the state. … Nebraska is losing students and instructors.”

The university, she said, should be ashamed, embarrassed it doesn’t offer domestic partner benefits.

Ed Wimes, University of Nebraska assistant vice president and director of human resources, agreed it is going to be more and more of a challenge for NU to be competitive without domestic partner benefits. Eight of 10 of the university’s peer institutions offer them.

“As society moves, institutions of higher learning have to move with it,” Wimes said.

The systemwide benefits committee has discussed the expansion of benefits but has not moved forward with it, he said. Being self-insured, it could do whatever it wants in that area.

Rigney said the state needs to give a little on these issues. Instead, it just keeps pushing back, pushing back.

“People say it’s just going to take time. Well, it’s taken more time than it should have. People don’t want to change. They’re happy fighting.

“They don’t realize the harm they’re doing, the repercussions. They’re going to lose a lot of good people. That’s a shame.”

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.