The Florida GLBT Deomcratic Caucus met on Saturday, seeking equal rights and focusing on electing Democrats even if they don't support all of the gay issues.
According to this AP report posted on Southern Voice, "Gay activists believe they need to support Democrats opposed to gay marriage for the sake of seeking change on issues that affect a broader range of Americans. 'This is not the time to take our marbles and go home, there are too many issues at stake,' said Brian Bond, executive director of the Democratic National Committee's Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council. "
This flies in the face of rhetoric often used against those proported to supoort "the homosexual agenda." I think this is a wonderful example of at least one group of political activists that can see beyond their personal goals and embrace the big picture of what is happening in the entire United States. It's too bad this is increasingly rare on both sides of the isle.
As the AP reports, "Republican Party of Florida spokesman Jeff Sadosky disputed contentions that Republicans use the issue like gay marriage and flag burning to divide. 'I have a problem with defining them as wedge issues when the majority of Americans feel just the same,' he said. 'We welcome anyone and everyone, the Republican Party is a big tent party, but at the same time we do believe certain things and one of those things is that marriage is a commitment between one man and one woman."
What Mr. Sadosky fails to address, though, is that in a recent poll conducted by FOX News, people think the most important issues facing the country are Iraq, the economy, and health care. That hardly seems to justify all the energy spent on trying to constitutionalize a ban on same-sex marriage.
I'd also like to see a gay person stroll into that "big tent" uninvited. I wouldn't recommend it.
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The reason politicians, be they Republicans or Democrats, can either take gays for granted or even express downright hostility to them is largely because the gay communities are not politically astute or committed enough to confront them. As I've written before, rather than have such ceremonies as Pride Parades focus on the Mardi Gras and celebratory aspects of gay life, it would be of tremendous benefit if all of that energy were harnessed to march and agitate in demanding full and equal civil rights.
ReplyDeleteMany of my gay friends are into partying and/or living solitary lives that enable them to avoid the contention necessary to acquire the civil rights that others enjoy. No one gives civil rights to others! Those civil rights have to be demanded and fought for until they are acquired, and to support any politician who advocates, either by silence or by rhetoric, discrimination against gay people is not only pathetic, but sets the time for full and equal civil rights for gay people ever further into the future.
Those who attempt appeasement haven't learned the lesson of Neville Chamberlain's fiasco in attempting to appease Hitler, and they do a tremendous disservice to not only themselves and the gay community, but to all of us who are offended when any segment of our population is oppressed in the name of God, in the name of political expediency, in the name of indolence, and in the name of appeasement.
And this is the bind that the gay community is in, vote for the party that shows up with smiles to collect our fundraising dollars at election time, only to be abandoned, LITERALLY, at the altar by people who know better (like John Kerry) saying they are Yay on Gays! but can't see their way to marriage equality, or vote for the party that actively seeks to criminalize our innate orientation. Some choice.
ReplyDeleteThe alternative, made very difficult by our deeply entrenched two-party system, is to support candidates who are actually liberal, even when the wind isn't blowing in their direction. You know, people who stop denying/apologizing for being "liberal," as if it were a pejorative word like "pedophile" or "Britney Spears fan."
Unfortunately, there aren't very many of those viable alternatives around. So we are left with the conundrum of literally choosing the lesser of two evils. Meantime, I am writing all my representatives (including Senator Clinton) and saying that I will not support, either financially or with my vote, any candidate or organization that does not explicitly endorse same-sex marriage.