LGBTQ community reflects on recent accomplishments

The domestic registry is one of this year's accomplishments.

By Amanda Bromwich

Published July 8, 2009

Last month, the Mid-Missouri LGBT Coalition hosted the sixth annual PrideFest at Stephens Lake Park. This event and similar celebrations across the country were held in the spirit of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which were riots caused by the New York Police Department's raid of a gay bar.

Following PrideFest, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning community reflected on the accomplishments of the past year. Since the start of the year, the LGBTQ community worked to get the Columbia Domestic Partnership Registry passed and worked to open The Center Project, an LGBTQ resource center on Ash Street.

Tim Root and his partner Doug Stone were the first couple to sign the registry. Root said they signed it simply as a precaution in case one of them ever needed to be hospitalized.

Because many places, such as hospitals and nursing homes have visitation policies allowing only family to visit patients, the registry, which was passed in May by the City Council, can be used as proof of a relationship.

David Huddlestonsmith and his partner Dave Collins were the second couple to sign the registry. Huddlestonsmith was involved in the planning work to get the registry passed and also advocates for LGBTQ civil rights.

"We decided we wanted a goal and the Domestic Partnership Registry was it," Huddlestonsmith said. "Now we have around 30 to 40 couples. St. Louis has had a domestic partnership registry for a good while and it has around 250 couples on it."

Many opponents of the measure said it was the first step in legalizing same-sex marriages in Missouri. Although the issue of legalizing same-sex marriages is a hot topic in the LGBTQ community, Stone said he doesn't feel government should be involved in marriage at all.

"You need to get the government out of the marriage business," Stone said, "It would change the game completely."

Instead, many members of the gay community believe marriage should be left to church. Open Door Ministry is an organization based out of the Missouri United Methodist Church that is open anyone wishing to worship, including members of the LGBTQ community.

Root and Stone are active members of the Open Door Ministry and volunteered to help with the organization's booth during PrideFest.

"A lot of people have the misconception that gay people aren't religious or spiritual," Stone said. "We had almost a full page of people who were not only looking for an organization, but a church."

Root said the issue is more about tolerance.

"People are going to have to learn tolerance, it's a movement across the nation," he said. "This is a civil rights issue, not a church or a God issue."

Although same-sex couples benefit from the registry, anyone can sign up.

"A lot of senior citizen's elect not to get remarried because they lose a lot of the benefits they work their whole lives to get," Stone said.

After the council unanimously approved the ordinance, some members of the LGBTQ community saw other projects as the next step.

"Some feel satisfied with the registry, while others want to keep the momentum moving," Stone said.

Huddlestonsmith said he sees getting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed on the national level and the Missouri Non-Discrimination Act passed on the state level as the next priorities in the LGBTQ community. The two pieces of legislation would add sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to the list of non-discrimination terms.

"You gotta stay out there," Root said. "Stay out there in the limelight and not drop the ball like California."