Antigay Referenda in the Works 
The most publicized antigay initiative this year will be in Miami-Dade, where Christian homophobes are putting a measure on the ballot to repeal civil rights protections for gay people. But that’s just the tip of the antigay iceberg. Here’s the latest on initiatives and efforts to defeat them.

Santa Barbara, California. In March, residents will vote on repeal of a city council resolution that criticized the Boy Scouts’ discrimination against gays. The repeal measure also applauds the Scouts for their antigay policies.

Maine. Last year the Pine Tree State implemented a domestic partnership policy for state employees. The Christian Civic League is seeking to have the policy put to a vote. Maine’s pro-gay side lost the last referenda by 51 percent to 49 percent in 2000.

Massachusetts. Social conservatives in the Bay State are pushing “Super DOMA,” a defense of marriage act that would ban any state recognition of same-sex relationships, including civil unions and domestic partner benefits. The same firm was collecting signatures for the antigay initiative and for “Save Our Horses” (about slaughterhouses), and there have been accusations that some signers were deceived about which petition they were signing.

Oregon. The same old crowd of troglodytes—antigay activist Lon Mabon and the Christian Coalition—are collecting signatures to enact a law to bar discussion of homosexuality in public schools, kindergarten through community college. In 2000, a similar amendment was defeated by 53 percent to 47 percent. Oregonians have a history of defeating such amendments—but never decisively enough to discourage the religious righters from bringing up another one.

Nevada. It takes two elections to amend the state’s constitution, so in November Nevadans will vote again on whether to confirm their 70 percent to 30 percent vote in 2000 to adopt an antigay marriage amendment.

Michigan. The pro-gay side won three battles in Michigan cities last fall, but the antigay side won two earlier referenda, so the American Family Association (AFA) is gearing up again. In Ypsilanti, the AFA gathered enough signatures to try to repeal the city’s ban on antigay discrimination. In a similar Ypsilanti vote in 1998, our side won 56 percent to 44 percent. And in Flint, the AFA is collecting signatures to force a similar antigay initiative.

The gay movement isn’t sitting still. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), for example, has worked with local groups in Massachusetts to train volunteers to stop “Super DOMA.” NGLTF will also be training grassroots activists who are fighting other antigay measures. Dave Fleischer, NGLTF’s director of training, notes that NGLTF’s workshops will begin in Miami Feb. 21-24, move to Oregon April 19-21 (in conjunction with Basic Rights Oregon and Equal Rights Nevada), and wind up in Michigan May 16-19. NGLTF is also giving grants to local groups to fight the initiatives.

Gay Democrats Gather 
At the mid-winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in Washington, D.C., the gay and lesbian presence was much in evidence:

•The DNC passed a resolution in favor of making Social Security benefits equally available to gays and lesbians and their families, a proposal recently advanced by the Human Rights Campaign.

•Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who in the face of considerable opposition firmly supported same-sex civil unions, stopped by the DNC’s Gay and Lesbian Caucus to promote his unannounced candidacy for president in 2004. Dean cited the positive effect on his state’s legislature when an openly gay lawmaker—state Rep. Bill Lippert—answered the antigay rhetoric on the House floor in the civil unions debate.

•DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe spoke to the caucus and was prepared to take questions on the failure of newly inaugurated Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA) to include sexual orientation in his ban on discrimination. However, no one asked a question about Warner, whom Virginia Partisans Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club has criticized for his stance. Warner did catch some flak, however, when Congressman Barney Frank addressed the caucus. “I hope everyone who lives in Virginia will yell like hell about Mark Warner,” said Frank, who noted that the governor’s omission “was politically stupid.”

Now and Then in Minnesota 
In January, openly gay Al Oertwig was elected chairman of the St. Paul, Minn. school board. Oertwig’s election by his fellow board members follows similar gains in co-joined Minneapolis, where openly gay Robert Lilligren was recently elected vice president of the city council and openly gay David Fey was appointed deputy mayor.

These events are a far cry from the “good old days.” A recently published book, The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s, the memoirs of a gay man’s life in the late 1940s in St. Paul, tells the story of one homosexual who was fired because his boss got an anonymous phone call that “a cocksucker” was working for him. Another was fired because his boss said he was a bad influence on other employees. At the city’s only gay bar at the time, Kirmser’s, two toughs barged in and beat up one of the patrons so badly that he limped for days. The only person to come to the victim’s aid was criticized by other gay men in the bar—who were psychologically as well as physically cowed—for taking such a risk. Le plus ca change, le plus ca change.
 

Gov. Swift Taps Gay Man for Lt. Governor 
Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift (R) made history recently when she picked her gay deputy chief of staff, Patrick Guerriero, as her running mate for this fall’s election. Guerriero, whose gayness was previously more an open secret than public knowledge, is only 33, but he’s already got under his belt three terms in the legislature and two terms as mayor of Melrose, a working-class Boston suburb.

Guerriero is also a looker—the Boston Herald’s Margery Eagan compared him to Florida’s George Prescott Bush, the handsome Latino nephew of El Presidente, quoting one Beantown politico that Guerriero’s looks were “the talk of the locker room at the Y.”

Glamour aside, Swift’s pick of Guerriero is significant, especially if he beats out conservative millionaire and ex-state GOP chairman James Rappaport for the Republican nomination.

First, as ex-Al Gore campaign aide Doug Hattaway, now a Boston consultant, notes, the choice of Guerriero “helps Swift position herself as a moderate.” Rich Tafel, executive director of the gay Log Cabin Republicans and an ex-Bay Stater, agrees that Guerriero sends a message to the “huge numbers of suburban voters in Massachusetts [who] are really moderate Republicans”—even if they register Democratic. But “I don’t think gay voters will go to the Republican ticket in droves,” says Hattaway, though he adds that Guerriero being gay may appeal to “nonpolitical” gay voters.

Second, it’s history-making. Other gay folk have been elected to statewide office—Vermont’s former State Auditor Ed Flanagan and Maine’s current State Treasurer Dale McCormick. And another gay man, Dan Grabouskus, is running for Massachusetts state treasurer as a Republican. But lieutenant governor is a cut above what’s usually called a “constitutional office” and is more often on the fast track for higher office.

Third, although Guerriero was not Swift’s first choice, her pick of a gay man, even in the liberal Bay State, is a further—and impressive—indication that gay people are moving into the mainstream of American civic life. You pick a running mate to win votes. That a governor of an important state thinks a gay candidate can help her do that is noteworthy.

And fourth, this is another indication that some GOPers are trying to broaden the party’s appeal. If Guerriero should win—and he may not, as the Democrats are favored in Massachusetts this year—he could be a major asset to the Republican Party by campaigning for gay support across the country. And if Guerriero becomes the talk of locker rooms from coast to coast, he might push President Bush beyond the 25 percent of the gay vote he got in 2000.

How Things Get Done 
You don’t have to hold a major office or run a megabucks political action committee to have an influence on government. The recent decision of Virginia attorney Robert Brame to withdraw his name from consideration for chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) came about because a gay man—working with a small group of researchers, writers and activists—paid attention to what’s going on and was willing to do something about it.

When Hans Johnson, a labor union editor and freelance writer who is active in the AFL-CIO’s gay group, Pride at Work, learned that Brame might get the White House nod to head the agency, Johnson did some homework. He found that Brame, who had previously served on the NLRB, had a record on labor and gay issues so extreme that—if brought to light—would provoke a firestorm. Since both sets of issues were important to Johnson, he submitted an article detailing Brame’s views to In These Times, a liberal-leaning biweekly magazine published in Chicago.

In “The Brame Game,” Johnson broke the story, pointing out that Brame was no garden-variety conservative, but on the far edge of religious right ideology. Brame was an officer and one of five board members of American Vision, a group that identifies with the Christian Reconstructionist movement, which seeks to use the Bible as the basis for civil law. For example, the group’s chair, Gary DeMar, said on a radio show that—per Leviticus—if there are two witnesses to sodomy, the perpetrator should be executed (no more threesomes!). On more than one occasion Brame himself cited official tolerance for gay people as a sign of what’s wrong with America, condemning court decisions for “justifying the freedom of ‘consenting adults’ to engage in homosexual acts.”

Following publication of Johnson’s article, various gay, labor, and civil liberties groups began to agitate against Brame. The Human Rights Campaign, the National Organization for Women, the National Writers Union, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State all began to publicize Brame’s record and contact lawmakers. Pride at Work was a key player. In addition to liberal groups, right-of-center writer Andrew Sullivan on his Web site likened Brame to the Taliban, and gay GOPers made their objections to Brame known at the White House.

The rest is history. In retrospect, says Johnson, Brame’s record was “so daunting that even the Bush administration didn’t cotton to a battle over his extreme views.”