American politicians rarely use the term “human rights” to discuss causes that they champion in the domestic arena; they are much more likely to use labels such as “civil rights” or to focus on an issue without classing it as a human rights concern. Senator Ted Kennedy, who lost his battle against brain cancer on Tuesday, August 25, 2009, can easily be considered an American human rights advocate given the causes he espoused and the uncompromising manner in which he fought for them. Today the American Congress and American government in general lack individuals who stand for and stay true to causes designed to benefit the most disenfranchised people in the country. This hole in American politics makes it particularly important that we recognize and celebrate Senator Ted Kennedy’s accomplishments, crusades, and the commitment with which he pursued them.
A survey of only a few of the policies on which Senator Kennedy toiled paints a picture of a politician committed to improving the lives of poor Americans. Chief among his battles were his fight to raise the federal minimum wage to a fair wage and to ensure universal health care. While most countries of a similar economic development level to the U.S. have achieved a living minimum wage and robust universal health care, these two topics remain contentious issues in the United States, and thus persist unresolved as factors that contribute to American rates of child poverty, income disparity, and education lag. Senator Kennedy fought for these issues in an uncompromising way and was unique amongst American politicians in being an unwavering voice for these pressing topics, considered social and economic–and basic–human rights in much of the rest of the world. The determined way in which he refused to back down on these issues–he has been championing universal health care since 1969–is akin to a human rights advocate convinced of the inherent and inalienable nature of the rights underlying these policies, such as the right to health, or the right to life which requires the right to health and the right to fair remuneration to be fully realized. Few American politicians have taken as courageous a stand on these points as did Senator Ted Kennedy, who has fought against poverty since his first year in the Senate in 1964, when he supported President Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act. America will no doubt feel the absence of Senator Kennedy’s leadership for improving its social and economic conditions as it attempts to reshape national healthcare and continues to navigate tough economic times.
LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights advocates are also celebrating Senator Kennedy for standing up for this most basic of human rights: the right to love and be loved by whom you choose. Michael A. Jones of the Gay Rights Change.org blog cites the Senator’s unique and exemplary record of supporting LGBT rights in the Senate and laments the loss of such a strong ally. He writes that Senator Kennedy “was ahead of his time by championing LGBT rights for decades, fighting to pass inclusive hate crimes legislation, and an employment non-discrimination act that covered sexual orientation and gender identity. He was one of only 14 Senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act . . .With Sen. Kennedy’s passing, a giant hole is now left in the U.S. Senate when it comes to a tried and true supporter of LGBT rights. Who will fill that mantle?”
Senator Kennedy was also a champion for women’s rights, and notably for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It might seem basic to amend the U.S. Constitution so that it declares equality between women and men and prohibits discrimination based on sex, and yet passage of the ERA has been and remains a highly contentious issue in American politics. He advocated for the ERA from the 99th to the 110th Congress, attempting to reintroduce it this year. He was also one of the chief advocates of Title IX, designed to ensure gender equality in education settings. Again, this would seem a basic proposition, and yet Title IX proved to be highly divisive, facing criticism because it required funding parity for girls’ athletic programs. In the face of this criticism he declared that enforcement of Title IX must be strengthened.
It is clear that when it came to causes so frequently marginalized in U.S. political discourse the disenfranchised had a champion in Senator Ted Kennedy. Over the years he was also a defender of the rights of minorities, immigrants, and persons with disabilities, and had a special focus on education and healthcare, the social services in which America falls behind its counterparts and without which Americans struggle. The U.S. has lost a politician who was willing to take a righteous stand on topics that divide the country and yet must be addressed if Americans are to reach their full potential. He will be sorely missed.