Des Moines Business Record
10-01-06
2006 Central Iowa Activist Awards: Human & Civil Rights
By Beth Dalbey
bethdalbey@bpcdm.com
Des Moines attorney Sharon Malheiro shakes her head at the divisive tenor of
the political debate over civil unions and wishes business leaders and voters
would demand that candidates this fall talk about issues that really matter to
Iowans, such as how to clean up the state's waters or develop its renewable fuel
potential.
"Quit talking about amending the Constitution and passing laws that make it more
onerous and discriminatory," she said. "Quit engaging in this rhetoric the rest of
us have gotten over."
Malheiro, a senior shareholder at the Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts law
firm, proudly calls herself a gay rights activist, knowing at the same time there
are people who see her cause as one that seeks "special" rights for gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered individuals.
"We still aren't treated equally," she said, pointing to the 1,052 rights that married
people have, but are denied to same-sex couples. "We're not asking for special
rights; we're asking for access to the same rights.
"Everybody should be able to live their life honestly and without fear, and that
means being able to be who you are when you are at work, be who you are when
you are in a restaurant or at a grocery store, and it also means having access to
the same rights, privileges and obligations," she said. "If we're allowed to have
these legal rights to families, we also have legal obligations that come with them
that any parent or spouse would have. If I've been married for 25 years and my
spouse has stayed at home and taken care of the house and kids with no specific
means of support and we split, there's probably cause for alimony."
The issue of gay rights "seems somewhat personal," she conceded, "but it has
an impact on businesses."
"If your employees are happy, are healthy, and they have a balanced home life
and are not worried about providing for their families, they can be more focused
on their work," she said. "We don't realize that when we debate the civil union
issues."
Public policy that extends to same-sex couples the rights and privileges of
marriage also helps businesses recruit employees from a broader base, she
said. "Somebody who lives in a city, town or state where there are more legal
protections and obligations is less likely to relocate," she said. "If you have an
inclusive work environment where everybody knows everybody's appreciated
and where they can be open and honest, you're going to have a more productive
worker."
Though a sea change may not yet have occurred in public acceptance of LGBT
families, "we're farther along than people think we are, or that it appears we are,"
she said. "We're actually talking about it in public. We're debating it in public.
LGBT families are living more openly, which I think helps shatter stereotypes and
then promotes inclusion and understanding."
A good example, she said, was in the public debate over the upcoming Valley
High School production of "The Laramie Project," a play based on interviews
conducted after the 1998 murder Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming
student who was kidnapped, savagely beaten, tied to a fence in freezing
temperatures and left to die. Much of the public debate surrounded the use of
offensive language in the play, rather than Shepard's sexual orientation.
"I believe part of the objection is based on content … but maybe by not
expressing and verbalizing it, we actually are moving forward," she said. "Maybe
by using the smoke screen of the language, people are realizing that it's not OK
to gay-bash. Ten years ago, people could have said, 'It's about gay stuff, so it's
not appropriate.'"
As an attorney, Malheiro often fights the battle for inclusion and acceptance in
court by representing LGBT clients who believe they have been discriminated
against. "I'm fortunate that the firm allows me to do the pro bono work in that
area," she said. "As a body of lawyers, we realize we have been given an
opportunity and a gift as lawyers, and because of that we have a social
obligation. I can go home and feel good about what I've done."
For example, earlier this year, she represented a woman whose partner had died
and whose former husband contested her will. The lesbian couple had been
together for 12 years, and the deceased woman's former husband had harassed
them for most of their lives.
"The ex-wife knew that if anything happened to her before partner died, her ex
would try to take everything away, so she wrote a homemade will," Malheiro said.
"She didn't have all the specific legal language, but it was witnessed and met the
minimum requirements."
Malheiro's client prevailed in court when her partner's former husband financed a
lawsuit filed by his sons claiming the will was a forgery, "but she didn't know for
four or five months while the case was pending whether she would win and, if
not, whether she would be homeless."
Despite progress in debunking the stereotypes associated with LGBT individuals,
openly gay workers still worry about discrimination. "Even in Des Moines, with a
city human rights ordinance, there are ways of firing somebody and not telling
them what the actual reason was," Malheiro said. "They may face certain
ostracism by coworkers, and if they are in a business where they have to
generate business and people won't hire them because they are gay, they could
have a loss of earning or a loss of revenue."
Malheiro is a cooperating attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund and is working with that group on several LGBT equality issues in Iowa.
President of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center
of Central Iowa, she facilitates workshops on civil rights, workplace rights and
other issues that gay and lesbian families face for such groups as federal parole
officers for the Southern District of Iowa, the Des Moines Human Rights
Commission, the Iowa prison system, Iowa State University, the Central Iowa
chapter Society for Human Resources Management and many local businesses.