Gays in Malverne react to Supreme Court ruling

After fighting for the right to gay marriage for nearly 35 years, gay rights activists were elated by the Supreme Court’s decision last month making same-sex marriage legal across the country.

When several gay Malverne residents were asked about their reaction to the ruling, however, they showed a mix of emotions, from exhilaration to concern to cautious optimism, about their rights, their elected leaders and what they described as discriminatory practices that are still legal in New York and the rest of the country, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“A lot of people, like myself, have had a lot of patience waiting for this world change that we’re seeing,” said Malvernite and author Sean Brennan, who has lived with his partner in the village for the past six years and is a former Catholic monk with the Marianists at Chaminade High School. “Others have been less patient, and have a right to be, because we haven’t moved forward on other issues.”

Brennan, like many others in the gay community, said he believes that making gay marriage legal put the proverbial cart before the horse because the court’s ruling did not address providing the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community with the more important status as a federally protected class. “People can still be fired for being gay,” he said. “It’s the law in many states. That’s crazy to me. That should have been addressed before marriage equality.”

According to information released by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights advocacy organization, 22 of 50 states and the District of Columbia prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations. The American Civil Liberties Union reports that only 18 states offer this protection to people based on their gender identity or expression — and New York is not one of them.