Bisbee, AZ Fights for Same-Sex Unions
Like Alaska, Arizona has a constitutional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. And like Alaska, their Constitution doesn’t say anything about civil unions. And although Arizona has a reputation for leaning far-right on many social issues, there are progressive communities who don’t believe that civil rights only apply to heterosexuals. One such community is Bisbee, Arizona. An old copper mining town that was reinvented as an artists’ colony in the 1970s, Bisbee sits close to the Mexican border just southeast of Tucson. It’s a charming community (pop. 5,633) full of old historic buildings, cute eateries and coffee shops, art galleries, and it even has some… gay people. Whom they don’t all hate or fear.
The testimony from the public was powerful.
After hearing how their relationship was an “abomination before God’s law,” and hearing a series of condemnations from local churchgoers, a Bisbee man stands next to his partner and tells those assembled that he is not an “abomination” and makes a simple and eloquent request of the Bisbee City Council. “We would like just a sliver of the rights you have.”
On April 2, the Bisbee City Council voted 5-2 to do just that. They passed an ordinance offering civil unions to all couples in the city, regardless of their sexual orientation. These civil union certificates give same-sex couples many of the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as married couples – including property ownership, inheritance, guardianship, and adoption rights.
In the ordinance, the Council makes it clear that the City does not have the authority to legalize same-sex marriage. But since the Arizona Constitution is silent about civil unions, Bisbee has the authority to take this step. The council wrote that it seeks to “put an end to discriminatory practices within the City of Bisbee.”
In response to this step forward, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne has threatened to sue Bisbee for taking a stand against discrimination. The lawsuit, he said, would come within the next 30 days, when the new Bisbee law would go into effect. This is probably not surprising to anyone following Arizona politics these days.
What is surprising (and in a nice way) is that Fred DuVal, former chariman of the Arizona Board of Regents, businessman, civic leader, and possible gubernatorial candidate, took on the state’s attorney general today by launching a petition supporting the small town of Bisbee’s unusual stance in favor of civil unions for all.
DuVal issued a press release today, stating that the use of state tax dollars to meddle in local government is frivolous.
PHOENIX, April 5, 2013—Arizona business and education leader Fred DuVal, who is exploring a run for Governor, today launched a petition calling on Attorney General Tom Horne to drop his planned lawsuit against the City of Bisbee for its new civil unions ordinance.
“Please join me in taking a stand to support Bisbee,” said DuVal. “Arizonans cherish our personal freedoms and Bisbee has the right to offer civil unions without big government interference. Such actions are a frivolous use of state resources.”
Arizonans who believe that civil unions should be the right of any couple can sign the petition in support of the position taken by the Bisbee Council, and check out DuVal’s website.
It’s an interesting case to watch while you are following the Supreme Court and its forthcoming decisions on marriage equality. It also has interesting Alaskan parallels, and will be worth watching for those reasons. Almost seventy percent of Alaskans, according to Public Policy Polling, support the idea of some legalized form of same-sex partnership.
As a resident of the greater Bisbee area, I’m adding my 2 cents: way to go Bisbee! A poke in the eye of the reactionaries in this state, I think you’ll see more such civil union actions in the coming days. From what I’ve read on Daily Kos, ordinary Arizonans will be pushing their towns to do the same in the near future, Tom Horne be damned, and the right wing even more damned.
Pushback is starting here, and the Republicans had better watch out.
{Hi Mags!}
My second Army assignment was to Fort Huachua, AZ. While living in Sierra Vista, I always enjoyed day trips to Bisbee. Upsetting to me, however, was seeing the huge, old, open-pit, eye sore that is the Copper Queen mine each time we drove around that area.
Those experiences in the late 1970s certainly helped me know, early on, that I oppose the Pebble Mine prospect in western Alaska. The tailings from the Copper Queen were dumped all over town and in areas that would become residents’ front and back yards. Today those very old tailings are making people who live around them sick. And some are moving away.
Say yes to Bisbee! And say no to the Pebble Mine.
Thanks so much for posting this. I was afraid I’d have to break into another story and be off-topic otherwise. I live in Bisbee. I get really frustrated at our insularity, isolation, and our tendency to think of ourselves always as so, so special. I get fed up every time I have to drive 32 miles over to the next town to see a movie or go to a bookstore (both second-rate) or buy underwear. But, for the last few days I have been very proud of my little town and our city council and mayor. We have a tradition of tolerance, fair play, and of minding our own business which draws as much upon our early history of Progressive politics as from the counterculture. We pretty much try to do the right thing, no matter how wrong-footed we may be in doing it. My outer cynic, who pretty much rules all the time, tells me that this is just a gesture, a symbolic act, a little pebble hurled against a great big wall of hate and ignorance. But my inner fool keeps telling me that pebbles start landslides.
Hey Mudflatters, if you’re ever up for a really fun vacation, come to Bisbee and drop a couple of bucks. I’ll buy you lunch at my favorite tacqueria and give you a great walking tour. We can use your support.
Drops of rain will eventually wash the mountain into the sea. Symbolic gestures are better than no gestures, and I suspect it provides enourmous support to the LGBT folk who live there to see their neighbors standing up for them.
I love Bisbee!
Oh my, this is wonderful news.
I’m feeling kinda proud about having visited Bisbee 4 times and spending some money
Swoooon BISBEE !
So worth the trip. The people are so nice and kind.
Been to Bisbee, loved it. Had lunch at the Copper Queen. Kinda impressed me as Juneau South, but with neater old buildings and even more horrendous mining ruins.
At what point does the party that proclaims to keep government out of people’s lives,keep government out of people’s lives?