National Coming Out Week began on Wednesday, which was National Coming Out Day. How ironic that on the same day homosexuals were being encouraged to come out of the closet, the Supreme Court was pondering a Colorado law that seeks to shove them back in and slam the door.

The law, Colorado’s Amendment 2, regulates homosexuals and bisexuals to second-class citizenship. If the Court can see past the emotional and moral smoke screen of the law and see it for what it truly is, a glaring violation of the U.S. Constitution, the Court’s decision should be a no-brainer.

Amendment 2, passed by Colorado voters and ruled unconstitutional by the Colorado Supreme Court, states that no level of government in Colorado, “shall enact, adopt or enforce any statute, regulation, ordinance or policy whereby homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships shall constitute or otherwise be the basis of, or entitle any person or class of persons to have any claim of minority status, quota preferences, protected status or claim of discrimination.”

I know the law is wordy and possibly confusing, but it’s very important to know the exact wording of the law to really understand this issue.

Timothy Tymkovich, Colorado’s Solicitor General and the man pleading the state’s case to the Supreme Court, claims that the law merely prevents homosexuals or bisexuals from claiming any “special rights” that other residents of Colorado don’t have. But that is clearly not what the law says.

The law says homosexuality cannot be the basis for a claim of discrimination. This effectively legalizes discrimination against homosexuals, because the state wouldn’t recognize any discrimination claim based on homosexuality.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg raised this point during arguments for the case on Tuesday. She asked Tymkovich if a hospital could deny homosexuals access to a kidney dialysis machine. Tymkovich answered, “We don’t know.”

Tymkovich is effectively asking the Court to uphold a law when he claims to not know what the ramifications of that law could be. You would think this very important issue would be something Tymkovich would want to think about before going in front of the Supreme Court.

I think Tymkovich knows the answer to Justice Ginsburg’s question all too well. It’s just that the answer is so ugly and disturbing, even he doesn’t want to admit it.

Going by the letter of the law, a hospital could deny homosexuals access to a kidney dialysis machine or any other kind of medical care. After all, who are the homosexual victims of this discrimination going to complain to? Amendment 2 clearly states that homosexuality cannot be the basis of a claim of discrimination.

The voters of Colorado may have thought they were trying to keep homosexuals from having any “special rights,” or were simply voting to express their disapproval of homosexuality.

No matter what the intent of the voters was, the law they passed clearly keeps homosexuals from having any rights. Further, you can’t just vote homosexuality out of existence. Even if every straight voter in Colorado voted for Amendment 2, there would still be homosexuals in Colorado.

The U.S. Constitution says that everyone has a right to equal protection under the law. By trying to make homosexuals exceptions to this rule, Amendment 2 is clearly unconstitutional, just as the Colorado Supreme Court ruled.

If Colorado is allowed to decide that a certain minority doesn’t deserve the same rights the majority has, it could be the beginning of an ugly trend in America.

The Supreme Court is full of intelligent men and women, and this seems to be clear case of violation of the Constitution. However, it took the Court a long time to realize that its doctrine of “separate but equal,” usually only meant “separate.” As a result, systematic discrimination against African-American people was legal in the United States for a long time.

We should not, we cannot, head back down the terrible road of legalized discrimination. The Court shouldn’t look at this case as being about the merits of homosexuality. It is about basic human rights. EVERYONE has a right to equal protection under the law. Before we begin to see straight-only drinking fountains and lunch counters, the Court needs to protect the rights of all Americans, and strike down Colorado’s Amendment 2.

Steven Martens is a junior in journalism mass communication from Cedar Rapids.