National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell discussed recent GLBT legislative setbacks and successes at a San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC) reception, last Saturday.

“We really are in a challenging time in our movement, and I don’t think there is anyone who can not think about where we are as a GLBT movement without a mixture of anxiety and pride,” Kendell said, in front of 50 to 60 people at the Noel-Baza Art Gallery in Little Italy.

Maine voters defeated a measure last week – passed by its legislature and signed by the its governor six month earlier – that would have legalized same-sex marriage in the New England state, exactly one year after California voters passed Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in the golden state.

“What these setbacks demonstrate is that its not going to be easy. It’s going to be harder than we thought,” Kendell said. “Its why its called a civil rights struggle. It means that there are going to be moments that we feel utterly crushed.”

Nevertheless, Kendell said, there was cause for celebration. In what became a sort of pep rally, Kendell asked the audience to name the legislative successes the movement had achieved within the last week:

Kendell: “What happened two days after Maine?”

Audience: “Washington state”

Kendell: “What else?”

Audience: “Kalamazoo”

Kendell: “What else?”

Audience: “D.C.”

Kendell: “What happened in D.C.?”

Audience: “Hate crimes law”

Kendell: “And two days ago, hearings on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act”

Last week, Washington state voters approved a measure to give the state’s registered domestic partners additional rights previously given only to married couples such as the right to use sick leave to care for a domestic partner, voters in Kalamazoo, Michigan passed an ordinance adding GLBT people to an anti-discrimination ordinance, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act making it a federal hate crime to assault people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, and the House of Representatives held hearings on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which would prohibit employers with more than 15 employees from discriminating against its employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

In addition to the recent legislative successes, Kendell said GLBT people should be hopeful given the movement’s progress over the last quarter century.

“In every state of this country, men and women lost custody of their children simply based on sexual orientation. In no state where there any employment protections, in no state where there protections based on relationship status, in no state could you adopt as an openly lesbian or gay person, in no state would a young person ever dare come out, in no state where there a gay/straight alliance, there were no elected officials, two or three, and none at the national level. It was a barren wasteland,” she said.

In many ways, we live in a vastly different world today, Kendell said.

“We now live in a society where hundreds, thousands of employers provide domestic partner benefits and recognition of such relationships, in no state do you lose custody simply based on sexual orientation, 3,000 gay/straight alliances, thousands and thousands of kids coming out every year in junior high and high school, many embraced and supportive of their families and their churches. The landscape has entirely transformed,” she said.

“Just think about where you were and how you felt to be an ally or an LGBT person ten or twenty years ago and the differences that you feel now. On your darkest day, you have to be able to find hope in that juxtaposition,” she added.

In June, Kendell attended a White House reception commemorating the 40th anniversary of Stonewall where President Obama said he hoped to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act.

Kendell said she came away from the reception with two insights about Obama and the GLBT community.

“First, our equality, our humanity is a core value for him. There’s no doubt. The second thing is he’s only got a certain amount of political capital, and he’s not going to spend it on us, unless we make the price so high that he has too.”

During the reception, Councilmember Marti Emerald announced that she nominated SDDC President Larry Baza, who hosted the event, to the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, which provides advocacy and financial support to local arts and culture organizations and projects.

“The arts commission really wants him in there because they know he’s got wonderful contacts, he’s got great deep roots in the community, and he’s just going to be a wonderful addition to the commission,” Emerald said.

Mayor Sanders will need to sign the nomination and the City Council will then need to vote on it before it is finalized, said SDDC representative Joann Mockbee.