Perritt likes the idea that his career as a legal scholar and academic dean gives him the professional credentials to serve in Congress, but that his sexual orientation is part of “the total package” that he presents to voters. He believes that such acceptance is what most gay people want from the world.

Perritt does not have the support of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s biggest gay political group, which has raised money for Kirk-”which baffles me,” says Perritt. HRC contends that Kirk is helpful to gay goals in Congress, while Perritt is a long shot this fall. Kirk has a 67 rating on HRC’s legislative scorecard on gay issues, including support for job rights and hate crimes legislation.

Several factors support HRC’s judgment. Kirk’s re-election prospects are good. He’s more vulnerable than established incumbents and got a mere 51 percent in 2000. But when the Illinois legislature drew new lines for the 10th District, they made it more GOP-friendly. And in the all-important money game, Kirk continues to keep a healthy lead. At the mid-year point, Kirk had $946,000 on hand to Perritt’s $126,000. Kirk also has gay GOP support-Log Cabin Republicans have made his re-election one of its top eight goals for 2002.

Nevertheless, Perritt continues to wage a substantial campaign, including aiming major efforts at the gay community. When he went to Israel on a campaign fact-finding trip, Perritt made a point of visiting the Jerusalem Open House, the Israeli capital’s gay and lesbian community center. Closer to home, Perritt walked most of the route of Chicago’s pride parade, where he got “a tremendous response.” Perritt has also gotten supportive coverage from the area’s gay press. And he plans to raise several hundred thousand more so he can finance a significant media campaign this fall.

Despite Kirk’s financial advantage, Perritt’s chances of becoming the fourth openly gay member of Congress could improve substantially if a failing economy becomes the focus of the November election. Stay tuned.

Baldwin Draws Homophobic Foe
In 2000, Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay person elected to Congress as a nonincumbent, squeaked by with a slim 51 percent after her opponent, moderate Republican history professor John Sharpless, unexpectedly closed out his campaign with a major media blitz. This year, Sharpless isn’t running, mainly because redistricting made the 2nd District, which includes Madison and its environs, more Democratic. But Baldwin faces a different kind of challenge. Ron Greer, a right-wing firefighter who lost the 1998 Republican primary, is running and is favored to defeat the more establishment-oriented GOPer, Phil Alfonsi, in the September primary.

Greer, says Capitol Times political columnist John Nichols, “is a raging antigay activist,” noting that the candidate was dismissed from his job for distributing antilesbian literature on fire department time. In addition, Greer is anti-abortion and “a real Christian fundamentalist,” which broadens his appeal somewhat. Unfortunately for Baldwin, Greer is also an exceptionally good fundraiser, with significant ties to socially conservative groups around the country. While Greer “is not a serious threat to Tammy,” says Nichols, “he’ll stir the pot like crazy,” creating an unpleasant political environment for Baldwin and this district’s moderate voters.

Baldwin is taking nothing for granted. She is making major legislative efforts on dairy-farming and child-care issues, both of which are important in her district. She has also maintained her loyalty to the gay community, which helped finance her first race for Congress in 1998. Her rating on the latest HRC legislative scorecard is 100. She has also been generous with her time, promoting other gay candidates and gay political groups. And she’s done a superb job at raising money-nearly $495,000 on hand by mid-year.

Another Antigay Referendum Bites the Dust
For the fourth time this year, a ballot initiative designed to scuttle legal protections for gays has been kept off the ballot. Massachusetts became number four when its legislature recently declined to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment. The petition for the measure had the required number of signatures, but without legislative action, it could not be put on the ballot. Earlier this year, statewide initiatives in Oregon and Maine and a local initiative in Allentown, Pa., failed when proponents could not get enough certified signatures. Antigay proposals are still pending in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Bangor, Me. Four such proposals are definitely scheduled for this fall, however-in September in Dade County, Fla., and in November in Nevada, Tacoma, Wash., and Ypsilanti, Mich.

Sodomy Challenge Heads for Supreme Court
The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund has decided to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case involving Texas’ so-called “Homosexual Conduct” law, which criminalizes sexual activity between members of the same sex. If the U.S. Supreme Court grants certiorari-i.e., agrees to hear the case -it will be its first full hearing on the constitutionality of state sodomy statutes since the high court upheld Georgia’s sodomy ban in Hardwick v. Bowers in 1986.

The case began when Houston police officers, investigating another matter, happened on two men in the privacy of their bedroom. “Instead of apologizing and turning around and leaving,” says Lambda Supervising Attorney Susan Sommer, “they arrested them.” The defendants challenged the Texas statute that bans same-sex sodomy but were ultimately turned down by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

The prospects this go-round may be better than in the Hardwick case. For starters, unlike the Georgia law, which banned sodomy for heterosexuals and homosexuals alike (though you-know-who got put in jail for it), the Texas statute applies only to same-sex behavior. This gives the Texas case a discriminatory issue not present to the same degree in the Georgia case. Perhaps more important, says Sommer, who just recently argued-and won-a similar case before the Arkansas Supreme Court, “Times have changed since the Hardwick decision.” Sommer also points out that the Hardwick decision, which was decided by a 5-4 vote, has been strongly criticized.

Should the Texas antisodomy law be declared unconstitutional, depending on the scope of the court’s ruling, it could effectively eliminate similar laws now on the books in as many as 14 states, mostly in the South and Midwest.

The Texas and Arkansas cases are just two of the legal actions being taken by Lambda in the south central region, where the gay organization has recently opened a regional office in Dallas. Lambda opened the new office because of the large number of cases they have initiated in the eight-state region that covers Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. These include such high-profile cases as the wrongful death action against a sheriff in Nebraska who failed to protect transgendered Brandon Teena after he had complained to police that he had been attacked.

Now that Lambda has established an office in Dallas, legal actions on behalf of the gay community in the region are likely to increase. “Once you have a regional office,” says Lee Taft, director of the new office, “the number of cases in a region will skyrocket.” (Incidentally, Taft, a longtime lawyer for gay issues in Texas, has a more interesting background than most attorneys-he is a former dean of students at Harvard Divinity School.)

Most Gays Back Davis in CA Gov. Gray Davis (D) has been very good to gays, signing such important legislation as the new domestic partners law, the strongest in the nation after Vermont’s. He has also appointed a number of openly gay people to state jobs. By contrast, his Republican challenger, businessman Bill Simon, the son of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, is hostile to pro-gay measures. For example, he signed the socially conservative Campaign for California Families’ “Marriage Protection Pledge,” which opposes both civil unions and domestic partnerships.

So it’s no surprise that gay politicos are strongly behind Davis in his potentially tough re-election campaign against Simon. “There’s never been a clearer contrast between a candidate with a longtime commitment to the gay community and an antigay extremist,” says Daniel Zingale, a former HRC political operative now working in the Davis administration. Davis “is probably the most pro-gay governor in the United States, except perhaps for [Vermont’s] Howard Dean,” says Craig Roberts, president of San Diego’s Stonewall Democrats. “We have a special pipeline to the Davis campaign,” says Desert Stonewall president Fred Bilodoux. He also notes that “when Simon makes an appearance, Stonewall people are there to ask him questions.”

Some GOP moderates, such as former Assemblyman Bruce Firestone who twice tried-unsuccessfully-to wrest party control from the right wing, are getting behind Simon. But Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), who worked hard for Simon’s primary foe, ex-Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, have detected no indication on Simon’s part that he wants to reach out to the gay community. His only virtue has been one of omission-with the conservative-dominated primary behind him, he has not repeated his pledge about refusing to sign any pro-gay legislation. For now, California’s LCR “is focusing on other races,” says a gay Republican insider.

Although gay concerns are important, the California election is likely to turn on such issues as the state’s electric power problems and budget shortfalls. Inde-pendent polls consistently show a lead for Davis, but they just as consistently show him leading with less than 50 percent-a danger sign for an incumbent. Thus, the race could get close in the fall, making the state’s large and active gay vote that much more important.