Two steps forward, two steps back.

That’s a fairly accurate way to classify the GLBT civil rights struggle across the country over the past week – over the past year, for that matter.

As we compiled our “People of 2005” feature for this issue, we noticed that our struggle for fair and equal treatment under the law is a sometimes formal, often outrageous political dance. And, despite the politicians who decline to vote for our equal protections and the judges who say they’re “just interpreting the law” when they rule that our relationships aren’t valid, it is very, very personal.

Let’s start with the military. Who really knows what President Clinton intended when he initiated the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, but it’s no solution. At best, the policy is a half-step toward allowing gays, lesbians and bisexuals to serve in the military; an attempt to soften a rigid military system that still links patriotism with false notions of morality. But it’s still discrimination, and this week the U.S. Supreme Court finally heard arguments on whether universities are legally entitled to receive federal funds if they deny military recruiters access to their campuses because of the policy. The outcome will be based on the First Amendment, and could be a first strike against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” if the court rules against the military.

Someone cue up the music – the silence is killing us.

A U.S. District Court judge in Orange County ruled last week that 17-year-old Santiago High School student Charlene Nguon, whose principal outed her to her mother, may go forward with her suit claiming violation of privacy rights. The case is believed to be the first in which a judge has recognized that disclosing a student’s sexual orientation could pose a pretty friggin’ significant threat to that student’s safety at home. Charlene, you go, girl!

Now swing your partner ’round.

The ongoing battle Guadalupe “Lupita” Benitez is waging against the North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group took a turn for the worse Dec. 2 when the 4th District Court of Appeals ruled that Drs. Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton had the right to refuse to artificially inseminate Benitez, who is a lesbian, on the grounds that it would have violated their religious beliefs. The docs claim they didn’t have a problem with her sexuality, which Benitez’s attorney argued violates the Unruh Civil Rights Act, but rather with the fact that she wasn’t married – and the court ruled that they were within their rights because discrimination based on marital status is not prohibited by California law. Benitez’s attorney said the appellate ruling would be appealed to the California Supreme Court.

And the beat goes on…

Coming on the heels of the Roman Catholic Church’s new directive that says men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” cannot be admitted to seminaries and those already enrolled cannot be ordained – an internal letter the Washington Post recently got a hold of instructs Catholic seminaries to remove any gay priests from teaching positions because they’re responsible for “the formation of future priests.” That’s the one bummer about the separation of church and state – we can’t take the Catholic Church to court and sue them for discrimination. Then, at least, we could get a bundle of priceless artwork made by gay men like Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci out of a settlement.

Let’s end this little song and dance on a positive note: We’d like to thank Toni Atkins for her exemplary leadership as San Diego’s acting mayor over the last few months, and we’d like to thank San Diego for giving Atkins, the first openly gay mayor of the seventh largest city in the country, the kudos she deserves.