Kennedy Led Gay March for Progress

Teddy Kennedy was the star attraction at a gay Hollywood fundraiser I covered in the early 1990s at a posh home that wealthy guests called a "bungalow." A cameo appearance — with the legendary senator quickly ushered in and out by a whirlwind of aides — would have been enough to dazzle the crowd.

But instead of dashing for the door, Kennedy proceeded in a very down-to-earth way to get acquainted with folks. I knew he was gay Americans' fiercest advocate in the Senate, but I was struck by how comfortably he chatted about gay issues.

On his broad shoulders, he carried his family's legacy, especially that of his brother John. President Kennedy, of course, was killed before the quest for gay rights broke into the consciousness of mainstream America. At the fundraiser, I asked Ted Kennedy whether John would have become a gay-rights supporter. The senator paused to reflect. "That was a different time. But I really think that had he lived he would have become a supporter. I'd like to think that," he told me.

Over the years, I heard Sen. Kennedy umpteen times. But our brief encounter in California is what really taught me the depth of his commitment to marching toward full equality for gay men and lesbians: He wanted to believe that his beloved brother John would have traveled that road with him.

"I call this ... the march for progress," he declared in a rip-roaring pep talk to the gay Human Rights Campaign (HRC) early last year, just two months before his cancer diagnosis. "We're never going to be America until we have freed ... ourselves, this country, from all forms of bigotry."

Kennedy's off-the-cuff remarks were often a bit jumbled, but his big-hearted meaning was never in doubt: He championed the underdog and knew his embrace of gay rights was all the more important because so many politicians were too afraid to take up the cause — or were actively hostile.

When the AIDS crisis hit in the 1980s, Kennedy's was the voice of reason as Sen.

Jesse Helms stirred up fears. In the 1993 uproar that led to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Kennedy fought to allow gay Americans to serve openly. Likewise, he fought to protect gay and trans workers from discrimination. ?He was a longtime supporter of gay marriage, saying that Massachusetts' experience "has refuted the critics. We only strengthen our society when we allow our citizens to enter into a solemn commitment to share in life's joys and difficulties."

And, as he told the HRC gathering on March 7, 2008, "I can give you the assurance that as long as I have a voice and as long as I have a vote in the United States Senate, it's going to be for the agenda of the LBGT community."

Gay Americans have other friends in the Senate. With Kennedy gone, will one now emerge as a passionate gladiator for gay rights?

Worth watching is 42-year-old Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who replaced Hillary Clinton. A gay-marriage supporter, she got Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., to agree to hold Don't Ask, Don't Tell hearings this fall.

Among senior senators, keep an eye on 65-year-old Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who has young daughters. He's evolved to support gay marriage: "I believe that, when my daughters grow up, barriers to marriage equality for same-sex couples will seem as archaic and as unfair as the laws we once had against interracial marriage. And I want them to know that, even if he was a little late, their dad came down on the right side of history."

Teddy Kennedy believed in picking up fallen torches. Who will try to lead his march for progress?

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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