Label Doesn't Fit to a T

As the fate of legislation that would protect gay people from employment discrimination hangs in the balance, gay leaders have withdrawn support—because protection for the transgendered has been dropped from the bill. The liberal instinct to “want it all now” has run amok, John Aravosis argues, and boosters need to get “practical” and get the bill passed immediately.

The measure has been kicking around for three decades, and this is the first year it has a chance of being voted into law; it’s unacceptable to postpone it until society accepts people of all gender identities. “All legislation,” Aravosis says, “is a series of compromises,” and we’d have zero civil rights to speak of if we insisted on having them all at once. (More gay rights stories.)