An item I posted on Dec. 30 dealt with the National Gay &
Lesbian Task Force's endorsement
of a statement issued by left-wing groups that oppose U.S. military
action against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Elsewhere on this
site, you can find Rick Rosendall's column
taking the Task Force to task (so to speak) for past positions
against U.S. foreign policy. But in case you think that NGLTF is
alone on the movement's left flank, consider an article in the Jan.
3 issue of New York's Gay City News titled "Queer Anti-War
Sentiment Grows." It reports:
Queer anti-war activists had pressed NGLTF to oppose the war -- One group threatened to boycott NGLTF if it did not oppose the war. Others simply urged the Task Force to take a stand against the war....
"I think it's great," said Joseph N. DeFilippis, coordinator of the Queer Economic Justice Network. "The statement looks fine. It was shrewd of them to do it as part of a coalition so they don't have to stand up and get attacked by the conservative elements in our community."
There has been some criticism from left-leaning activists who see the "Keep America Safe" statement as insufficiently tough. A commentary on the web site blackcommentator.com described it as "anti-war lite." Mandy Carter, a long-time black, lesbian activist, offered a similar critique. "When I hear the line about patriotism -- this is why we have wars in the first place," she said. "We continue to have wars because we are guarding the flag and the nation states." Still Carter approved of NGLTF's position seeing it as part of a spectrum of positions that groups are taking against any U.S. war with Iraq.
You don't have to be in favor of eliminating the butcher of Baghdad before he acquires the bomb to believe that the possible war isn't a "gay" issue. While NGLTF seeks to ingratiate itself within the increasingly marginal political left (which seems more and more fixated on trying to re-enact Vietnam-era protests), such an identification doesn't help gays and lesbians achieve our long-term objectives, which have all to do with full equality under the law, rather than dreams of forced economic redistribution, de-militarizing America, undermining the nation state, or whatever contradictory panaceas are being ballyhooed at the moment.
Diverse Agendas. While on the topic of prominent national gay groups entering into (or becoming captives of) coalition politics, let's take a look at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest GLBT lobby -- leaving aside the matter of whether the regrettably now ubiquitous GLBT (or LGBT) tag, for "gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender," is itself a union of causes. HRC is considered politically more moderate than NGLTF, and it won't be taking a position on the Iraqi conflict. But it hasn't exactly rejected broader alliances of its own, either.
HRC serves on the executive committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and participated on the conference's Task Force on Affirmative Action, which lobbies Congress to maintain race-based preferences. Their support for preferential treatment based on race serves to confuses the claim that gays only want equal rights, not special rights, for ourselves. Conservatives, not irrationally, fear that federal non-discrimination legislation inevitably leads to government-mandated preferential treatment.
In the past, HRC has also included non-gay specific issues such as support for government funded abortions among the key votes it has used to rate congressional candidates. Among the measures used on its "congressional scorecards" over the years have been federal bills dealing with funding for abortion services, overseas abortion services, and restricting protests outside of abortion clinics. Bv taking into consideration votes on bills such as these, HRC ensures that moderate GOP legislators who have reached out to gays, but are pro-life to some degree, receive only mediocre to poor ratings -- which are then ballyhooed throughout the gay press as a definitive sign of how "pro-gay" someone is, or isn"t.
Such "grand coalition" tactics are, if anything, even more likely among local GLBT groups. I received one letter complaining that the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's largest gay rights group, used support for legalized partial-birth abortion as a litmus test for its endorsement of candidates, but didn't ask about same-sex marriage. As a result, the letter writer relayed that in his district ESPA endorsed an anti-same-sex-marriage Democrat over a pro-same-sex-marriage Republican.
Deference to coalitions can wind up working against our own interest. At the very least, groups that want to work for liberal or even leftist agendas should make it clear that their focus is on a diverse range of causes, many of which gay moderates, conservatives, and libertarians would rather oppose than support.
Getting Better All the Time?
I received a letter taking me to task for a Dec. 24 posting that included the line that "...the intolerant religious right is no longer going to be calling the shots in the GOP." My critic asked, "What on earth did you mean by the absolutely astonishing assertion?" and added, "Were you perhaps celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus by wearing your rose-colored glasses? It is amazing to my partner and me that a grown up adult person can actually believe what you wrote."
My response: I absolutely think that something has fundamentally changed in American politics over recent years. There is a new recognition in the GOP, coming down from campaign strategist Karl Rove, but also from GOP leaders such as Rep. Tom Davis (most recently chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee) who, like incoming Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, has spoken several times at Log Cabin Republican events. Vice President Dick Cheney's input is also important, given his family's support for openly lesbian daughter (and former professional gay corporate liaison) Mary Cheney.
These are among the powerful voices within the party supportive of gay inclusion, recognizing that (1) the all-important suburban vote is lost with too much kowtowing to the religious right; (2) the religious right's political importance is waning (though not entirely disappearing), and (3) an inclusive message and image will bring in both independents and more minority voters - enough to win a majority of the electorate. This view is very different from what the national party believed in the past, and it's certainly not good news for what remains of the political religious right. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority is gone as a political force. Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition has been floundering, with its numbers way down. Gary Bauer's exit two years ago seriously crippled the Family Research Council. Yes, James Dobson's Focus on the Family is still effective -- though its main efforts were never as political as the others.
Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition may remain a force to be countered, but when they pressed California gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon to adhere to their homophobic line last year, they cost him the election (and now it's clear that a statewide GOP candidate too closely linked to the traditional values crowd can't win in the Golden State). Robert Knight's small Culture and Family Institute (which resides within the Concerned Women for America) gets a bit of press, as do a few other groups. But the contrast with five years ago is startling.
This is a new era, and I think that needs to be pointed out --
especially since the gay left keeps implying things are getting
worse. If I'm wearing rose-colored glasses, they're wearing
blinders.