<![CDATA[The Private Sector And Gay Equality]]>One of the oldest arguments we had in the old gay rights movement - back when it was a monolithic captive of the New Left - was whether discrimination could be countered more effectively by private choice or public mandate. My view was that the government should not discriminate against gay citizens in any way, but that the private sector and anti-gay religious communities should retain more freedom. The market would eventually win over bigotry, I argued. That's me and my libertarianism. The consensus view was that federal anti-discrimination laws were much more vital, and the top priority of the Human Rights Campaign. That was in 1988. Such a federal law remains out of reach more than two decades later, despite massive support from the general public. But without such a law, we've been able to test whether the free market logic of non-discrimination can work. Today, we hear this news:
]]>