LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Capital Letters |
by Hastings Wyman |
Hate Crimes Legislation: If Not Now, Soon The majority vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in favor of federal hate crimes legislation may not result in passage of a new law this year, but it gave the measure a significant push forward. The 232-192 vote for the hate crimes proposal, combined with a 57-42 vote for similar legislation in the Senate last June, means that a majority in both chambers are now on record in favor of the bill. The measure, introduced as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill, would give the federal government the authority to prosecute violent crimes motivated by hatred based on gender, sexual orientation or disability. There are procedural and political roadblocks that make passage this year unlikely. The House Republican leadership is against the proposal, in part because House Speaker Dennis Hastert opposes non-germane amendments to authorization bills (a stance that has also discouraged anti-gay amendments). If that were the only reason for its opposition, however, the GOP leadership could put pressure on the Republican majority in the House Judiciary Committee to report a hate crimes measure as a separate bill, where the relevancy argument would not apply. But Hastert and company have not done this, probably because they are reluctant to offend the GOP's sizable component of Christian conservatives, who oppose any legislation that puts the government on record as recognizing the humanity of gay people. Major cracks are developing in the Republican Party over the hate crimes issue, however. GOP Congressman Bill McCollum, a conservative who is running for the U.S. Senate in Florida, has endorsed the proposal and helped bring along some 41 Republicans who voted for the hate crimes amendment, including five from Florida. McCollumwho is facing a backlash from anti-gay groups back homeand 18 of his GOP colleagues have also written Speaker Hastert, urging that he let a separate bill reach the House floor. The lion's share of the credit for the measure's success, however, goes to the Democrats. Not only did 190 Democrats92 percent of the Democrats who votedsupport the proposal, but some key party members helped forge the strategy that got the amendment through the House. The amendment plan was worked out more than a month ago in the office of gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.). Meeting with Frank were: Human Rights Campaign Political Director Winnie Stachelberg; Stonewall Democrat Political Director Daniel McGlinchey; Rob Cogorno, a top-aide to Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D); Wade Henderson of the Civil Rights Leadership Conference; aides to Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.); and representatives of the American Association of University Women. Frank says that on gay issues, "We're not going to get any legislation through of any affirmative sort as long as Republicans control the House." If the GOP leadership sticks to its anti-gay guns, Frank is right. But the Republican minority that is responsive to gay concerns is growing. If gay voters keep the pressure on Congress, including the GOP leadership, the nearly two-thirds of American voters who favor hate crimes legislation may get their way, perhaps sooner rather than later. Minnesota May Elect Pro-Gay Senator Department store heir Mark Dayton, a longtime straight champion of the gay community, won Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) primary and is now the party's nominee against Republican U.S. Sen. Rod Grams, who rates a big fat zero on the Human Rights Campaign's legislative scorecard on gay issues. Dayton, who spent some $5 million of his own money to win the nomination, won the primary with 41 percent to 22 percent for wealthy trial lawyer Mike Ciresi, 21 percent for state senator Jerry Janezich, and 15 percent for businesswoman Rebecca Yanisch. All of the major candidates in the DFL primary were supportive of gay issues and courted the community. Dayton in particular, "has been our friend for 30 years, before it was fashionable," says Wally Swan, the openly gay president of the Minneapolis Board of Estimates and Taxation. Gay political scientist Paul Mazur, of North Hennepin Community College in Minnesota, says "clearly, between Dayton and Grams, if you're interested in gay issues," Dayton is the obvious choice. Grams did work the crowd at an HRC dinner in Minneapolis last year and several of his aides stopped by the Log Cabin booth at this year's pride event. But other than voting for the confirmation of openly gay James Hormel to be ambassador to Luxembourg, Grams has been consistent in his opposition to proposals to ensure civil rights for gay people. Thus, even the Gopher State's gay GOPers are likely to concentrate on other contests, such as openly gay Terrell Brown's (R) race for the state senate. Both Dayton and Grams are likely to be well-funded. Dayton should benefit from Gore's lead in the state. A recent Mason-Dixon poll in Minnesota showed Gore with 48 percent, Bush with 40 percent, and showed Dayton actually leading incumbent Grams44 percent to 41 percent. "The Democrats are smelling blood," says Mazur. Vermont's Mixed Signals The good news is that Vermont State Auditor, Ed Flanagan, won the Democratic primary to become the first openly gay major party nominee for the U.S. Senate. Flanagan, who has gone after mismanagement in state government like the bulldog that he uses as his campaign symbol (don't you love it?), had the most money$500,000 to $200,000 for his primary opponent, five-term state Senator Jan Backusand support of 45 Democratic state legislators. Nevertheless, he managed only a 51 percent - 49 percent victory, due in part to the contentious civil unions issue roiling Green Mountain State politics. Though both Backus and Flanagan supported the state's new gay semi-marriage law, Backus ran best in those counties where civil unions were most unpopular. Flanagan, an articulate and impressive candidate, faces an uphill battle in the falla recent poll showed incumbent Jim Jeffords, a pro-gay Republican, ahead by 61 percent to 28 percent. The bad news is that the anti-civil union "Take Back Vermont" campaign succeeded in defeating half of the 10 Republican legislators the group had targeted for supporting the state's super-domestic-partnership law. While the 50-50 win-loss ratio could have been much worse, in a normal year almost no incumbents lose in the GOP primary, where voters tend to stick with the status quo. This won't encourage other would-be Republican moderates across the country. Of interest: To help the pro-Civil Union legislators, the Log Cabin Republicans' national office sent two staffers to Vermont and ran a telephone bank. In the race for governor, Ruth Dwyer, the more vociferous anti-civil unions candidate, won the GOP nomination. Dubbed the "pro-family" choice by the Vermont Defense of Marriage group, Dwyer is in the middle of a divorce. She faces pro-gay Governor Howard Dean (D) in November. Gay Democrats Go into High Gear for Gore Gay Democrats and much of the nation's gay political establishment are implementing the most ambitious campaign yet waged to turn out gay and lesbian voters in a presidential election. The multi-pronged effort includes the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the National Stonewall Democratic Federation and its 60 local chapters, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and a Gore campaign operation headed by Campbell Spencer, a former HRC organizer. This unprecedented push will include full-time gay vote coordinatorshired by the DNCin the battleground states of Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as volunteer coordinators in other states. "It's quite a significant network," says Mark Spengler, the DNC's director of gay and lesbian outreach. The campaign, which will shift into high gear in October, will include direct mail and paid advertising in the gay news media. The campaign also includes a "virtual precinct" program aimed at getting lesbian and gay voters to create and motivate an e-mail list of gay friends. And HRC, which will hear Joseph and Hadassah Lieberman and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume at its Oct. 7 National Dinner, is pushing gay and lesbian voter registration. The emphasis in the gays-for-Gore activities will be on informing gay and lesbian voters about the differences in the Gore-Lieberman and Bush-Cheney tickets on gay issues and making sure there's a large turnout from the gay community on Nov. 7. Stonewall's national organization will provide campaign materials to its local groups. (Stonewall, by the way, is enjoying a membership boomthe Federation has added 10 new chapters in the past two months, including clubs in Florida, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas. "Others are in the works in Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana," says Stonewall's Executive Director Mike Colby.) In Georgia, for example, the Stonewall Democrats are teaming up with state representative-to-be Karla Drenner (she won her primary and is unopposed in the general election) and the Georgia Equality Project to implement a statewide voter registration program. In addition, gay Democrats will work to maximize their impact in important Democratic-leaning states like California and New York. In the Golden State, for example, Stonewall Democrats are opening three gay and lesbian campaign offices in Los Angeles alone. The gay Democratic effort will extend beyond the presidential level. Stonewall, with the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Take Back the House" campaign, has targeted 14 hotly contested congressional races where gay and lesbian support can make a difference. All of this is on top of the DNC's major fundraising effort in the gay community. Hastings Wyman publishes Southern Political Report, a nonpartisan biweekly political newsletter. He can be reached at HWymanSPR@aol.com. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 10, No. 13, Sept. 22, 2000. |