THE MANTRA OF "DIVERSITY" has become the primary buzzword of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Movement. Too often, however, this notion is limited to diversity based on gender, race and ethnicity, but not political viewpoints. That appears to be changing, as moderate-to- conservative gays and lesbians insist on a seat at the lesbigay table, and the gay left reacts with thinly veiled scorn.
Example one: Consider the recent criticism by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) aimed at the Log Cabin Republicans, the organization of gay GOPers. The Log Cabin folks have chosen to give their annual Spirit of Lincoln Award to Ward Connerly, a member of the California Board of Regents, which governs the University of California system. Connerly spearheaded efforts to grant domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian couples in all state universities. He withstood intense public and private pressure from California governor Pete Wilson and GOP leaders, but never wavered, and with his support the partnership measure squeaked through last year.
So why is NGLTF in an uproar? Because Connerly was also a chief backer of the 1996 California Civil Rights Initiative, which ended race and gender-based preferences in state hiring and state university admissions. Connerly, an African American, believes passionately that racial preferences perpetuate the destructive notion that black Americans lack the ability to compete on individual merit. As he sees it, governments, including government-run universities, should not discriminate, whether it's favoring some students because of their race, or limiting spousal benefits to others based on their sexual orientation. In short, everyone is entitled to equal rights and equal justice.
To NGLTF, Connerly's opposition to race-based preferential treatment makes him "a civil rights foe" and "honoring Connerly's work divides our community by race and sexual orientation." But to Log Cabin, honoring Connerly is "a positive affirmation of our values and our vision for the movement." I give the nod to Log Cabin here. It's NGLTF that's insisting we all march in lock- step. I bet, after all, there are plenty of positions on non-gay issues taken by NGLTF that Log Cabin disagrees with (remember NGLTF's denunciation of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement?).
Example two: Say good-bye to the "Faith and Family" theme originally proposed for the year 2000 Millennial March on Washington (for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights). Faith and Family had been put forth by the march's major proponents -- the Human Rights Campaign and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. This was smart politics, meant to focus Middle America's attention on gay and lesbian partnerships, gay parenting, gay children, and so on, and to stand up to the religious right's drumbeat that gay love is both "a sin" and a threat to families.
So you can guess what happened - the theme's been jettisoned. Seems the group Sex Panic! didn't care for it (if you don't follow the minutiae of lesbigay politics, Sex Panic! is a small band of New York and San Francisco academics and activists who oppose "normalizing" homosexuality). In fact Michael Warner, one of SP's top ideologues, proclaimed that "faith and family is an extremely exclusionary theme. ... It is a massive repudiation of the lessons of decades of gay activism" -- which, in Warner's view, has presumably been about opposing faith and family (just like the religious right says).
A similar argument was made by Alisa Solomon, writing in the Village Voice. Solomon declares that the battle over the faith and family theme represents "the conflict between liberation and assimilation," and that "as the country tilts rightward, the assimilationist agenda had become dominant, some would say hegemonic." That's Marxist speak, in case you didn't know. She adds, "With the Millennial March, this wing of the movement is ready to make the essential assimilationist gesture: Stigmatizing queer sexuality." Solomon ends her piece by attacking the Wall Street Journal for running an op-ed column by Jonathan Rauch favoring gay marriage.
A final example: During New York City's Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade, 20 demonstrators made themselves the centerpiece of TV and newspaper coverage by chaining themselves across Fifth Avenue as Mayor Rudy Giuliani neared. Giuliani, who marched with the local Log Cabin club, is one of the most pro-gay Republicans in the country. He supports gay rights protections, appoints gays and lesbians to high government positions, and just recently stood up to New York's anti-gay Cardinal John O'Connor and pushed through New York's city council one of the nation's strongest domestic partnership measures. He even proclaimed "Out in Government Day" and credited gay men and lesbians with playing an important role in the city's turnaround.
But Giuliani also believes in individual responsibility and smaller government. As the New York Times puts it, "his message, a progressive form of Republicanism, combines putting welfare recipients to work with championing gay rights." So naturally, the lesbigay left decided to throw a public tantrum and focus media coverage on their chants of "Rudy, get out of our parade."
Sure, why not attack one of the few Republicans who has vocally condemned the religious right bullies who increasingly seem to dominate the nation GOP? After all, as the lesbigay left sees it, a pro-gay Republican is a greater threat to the socialist revolution than an anti-gay Republican.
Recently, Sex Panic's Eric Rofes, the "liberationist" author and activist, said, "We have to switch from this idea that there exists a generic gay community that shares a similar politics to a realization that we don't. And those of us who do share certain values and politics need to organize together." Rofes meant this to castigate "assimilationists," but in fact it's been the lesbigay left that has consistently tried to eliminate any deviation from the party line from the movement. So maybe gay political moderates and centrists should have their own Millennial March on Washington for faith and family, after all. And if Sex Panic! doesn't want to come, that's all right too.