Gay State of the State: Alabama Loves Carrie Prejean

The good news is that in Alabama you can now take your lesbian girlfriend to the prom. The bad news is that the good news sort of ends there. In the first of a series outlining LGBT rights in each state of our fine union, let's take a trip to Alabama.

Alabama is what I would consider a fairly hostile environment for LGBT rights. On a scale of Ellen to Anita Bryant, I'd give it a Ted Haggard: mostly anti-gay, but now with a little more compassion.

Marriage is defined statutorily as only being between a man and a woman, with no same-sex couple recognition anywhere in the state. Alabama law does not allow same-sex partners to make medical decisions for each other without an express advance directive, so be sure to pack one. Two years ago, the House voted to add sexual orientation to the state's hate crime law, but the Senate slapped some Alabama sense into them. There's zero anti-discrimination based on sexual orientation legislation -- meaning no job protection, no housing protection, nada.

Representing Alabama in the Senate, we have Jeff Sessions (R), who gets a 0% on the HRC gay-friendly test. But it's not all bad with Jeff, who says he might be able to support a Supreme Court Justice with "gay tendencies" if he thought they could get the job done. His colleague, Richard Shelby (R), also gets a big, fat 0% from the HRC -- probably because he voted for DOMA and a Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, against the ENDA, and against adding sexual orientation to the hate crimes bill (repeatedly). And that's just his gay rights record. Do not get him started on people who desecrate the flag.

In state politics, when the University of Alabama at Birmingham granted employee benefits to same-sex partners, State Rep. DuWayne Bridges filed a bill to withhold state funding from anyone taking such terribly inclusive measures. It's a "social experiment" he thinks should not be forced on tax payers, even gay ones. And Montgomery Representative Jay Love introduced a resolution in the state legislature praising Carrie Prejean for "standing true to her beliefs and faith." It passed. Awesome, right?

Oh, and over at the Beeson Divinity School, we have a co-author of the the Manhattan Declaration, Rev. Timothy George.

On the local level, things are somewhere between pretty bleak and "eh."

The Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Counseling in Alabama (AGLBTICAL) is an incredible resource for all things gay in Alabama, even if it is a short list. And Equality Alabama (not to be confused with the town of Equality, AL) is pushing hard for domestic partner recognition in the state. All that being said, I could only find two Gay and Lesbian centers in the entire state, and one is specifically for Auburn students. There are no GLSEN chapters for students, although GLSEN reports there are 9 Gay-Straight Alliances registered in the state. There are five PFLAG chapters. So in Alabama, the families of gay kids have some resources, while the kids are better off moving to Texas.

If you do happen to find yourself in Alabama, and you're gay, might I suggest Birmingham. Now that (recently-fired) Mayor Larry Langford has been set straight, so to speak, on the First Amendment and basic civil rights, Birmingham is practically gay-friendly. (Unless Jody Trautwein is elected mayor, then might I suggest Montgomery?) Birmingham is home to Central Alabama Pride, which stages the annual Pride Parade and hosts a handful of events over the course of the year. But! Beware! Focus on the Family chose Birmingham to hold a "conference on homosexuality" to guide parents through the process de-gaying their kids. For queer-friendly religious respite, there is a Metropolitan Community Church in Birmingham (and one in Montgomery, in case Trautwein wins).

Actually, the good news doesn't end at the prom. Last year, Patricia Todd was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives and became the state's first openly gay elected official. Well done State District 54. On the gay parenting front, although only "unmarried adults or husbands and wives" may adopt, there is no explicit prohibition against same-sex couples adopting, and second parent adoptions have been granted in some lower courts. That's sort of good news.

Alabama certainly has a number of amazing attractions worth visiting, but none so sentimental, and relevant, as the trails of the Civil Rights movement. Get on board with the Freedom Riders; sit in a jail cell, or on a parish bench, with Martin Luther King, Jr.; ride the bus with Rosa Parks; and head to the ballot box in Selma. Alabama, for all its current faults, is a place LGBT folks should remember. Fearful discrimination has lived in Alabama before, but it has also been defeated.

Photo courtesy of jbcurio's Flickr photostream.