Robert McCartney: D.C. gives gays their first-class due

WaPo Metro Columnist Robert McCartney talks to gay men of two different generations: 84-year-old gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, and 44-year-old Maryland state senator Rich Madaleno:

"If you ask my colleagues, my reputation is I'm the budget geek," Madaleno said. "It's because of people like Frank that people like me have the chance not to be the gay senator, but the senator who happens to be gay."

When he's not legislating, Madaleno's at home being a father to two adopted children, aged 6 and 3, whom he's raising with his partner. They consider themselves married after having a religious ceremony in 2001 at a Unitarian church. The state of Maryland doesn't recognize that union -- yet. Madaleno is a leading sponsor of a bill in Annapolis to change that.

Kameny and Madaleno said the legalization of same-sex marriage in the District is important especially because it improves public perceptions of gay people. It's not just the granting of equal legal rights and responsibilities. It's the weakening of the idea that they are separate, lesser, threatening.

"This is going to accelerate the trend of the last number of years of gays to become open and out and visible," Kameny said. "It helps to create the impact of first-class citizenship and first-class status."