IGF CultureWatch

Ryan Sager, a libertarian-minded NY Post editorial board member, makes a cogent argument in "Courting Gay Backlash" that fighting for marriage equality by persuading voters is a better long-term strategy than seeking court decrees that ultimately provoke a hostile populace to support measures worse than the status quo, such as amending state and federal constitutions. He writes:

"Gay marriage advocates ought to realize that there would be much to gain by engaging in democratic debate and compromise, rather than filing lawsuits all around the state as they have. Cutting the people out of the process not only disenfranchises them -- it lets them off the hook. Shouldn't those opposed to gay marriage be asked to confront the people they wish to relegate to an unrecognized netherworld? A spotlight on the inhabitants of this world might change some minds, if advocates could be troubled to shine it."

I think Sager has a point -- up to a point. Some gay advocates are far too eager to seek judicial action as a solution. And not just for marriage but to for all manner of perceived slights and injustices -- occasionally at the expense of constitutional rights such as freedom of association (i.e., when the Boy Scouts or St. Patrick Parade organizers don't want to let us into their private clubs). This is what lawyers do, after all -- they sue. But in jurisdictions where public opinion can be mobilized in our favor, a legislative or plebiscitary victory is much firmer ground for advancing our rights.

On the other hand, liberals have a point that courts exist to protect minorities from majority tyranny. If constitution guarantees of equality under the law are not likely to be realized due to widespread and deeply rooted animus, it is the role of the courts to defend those rights. But big social revolutions are predicated on many small victories, and working at winning popular support for the cause, especially where it is likely to be winnable, is in fact a smarter strategy than "courting backlash" among the benighted.

More Recent Postings

4/25/04 - 5/01/04

Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King, commenting on John Kerry's minority outreach efforts, references an April 16 Kerry campaign press release:

"Asian Pacific Islanders have a senior outreach official of their own. So do the environmental crowd, women and LGBT, which the press release fails to spell out (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people)."

This tactical use of "LGBT" (or "GLBT") is an increasingly common tactic, allowing candidates to solicit gay and lesbian votes without tipping off the rubes -- or at least making it too obvious by using the word "Gay" in a headline. There's an online correlate as well. On Kerry's website, the high-profile "Issues" homepage, with links to information on the candidate's record and positions, lists "GLBT" along with "Native Americans," "Seniors," "Women's Issues," etc. But you have to click on "GLBT" to go to a page that uses the word "gay." Similarly, I've seen references to candidates' support for the vaguely titled Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that fail to say exactly who it is that would be protected from discrimination under this proposal.

Of course, many gay-not-so-friendly candidates -- including President Bush -- don't mention gay issues at all except to oppose same-sex marriage. Still, it's worth noting that the supposed "inclusive" nature of the activist-created LGBT (or GLBT, or LGBTQ for "questioning and/or "queer") formulation, far from increasing our visibility, often makes gay references invisible to casual readers who aren't "in the know" -- or who might otherwise take offense.

More Recent Postings

4/18/04 - 4/24/04

On a weekend that brings a large pro-choice march to the streets of Washington, Matt Foreman, head of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) issued a statement declaring his group's support for abortion without restrictions:

First, the obvious: we march because like everyone else, LGBT people need, deserve, and demand the fundamental right to control our bodies without the interference of government.

Along with NGLTF, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) evaluates congressional abortion votes when tabulating its annual scorecard of how "gay supportive" politicians are, and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund has used a pro-choice litmus test for its endorsements.

On the other side, the Pro-Life Alliance of Gays & Lesbians (PLAGAL) issued its own statement:

"It is no pride to work for the rights of the GLBT community while at the same time taking away the rights of the unborn," said Cecilia Brown, PLAGAL's president. She further states "I know I speak for myself and others pro-life members of the GLBT community when I say that I do not want my rights as a member of the GLBT community to come at the expense of the unborn. It is far better not to take a stance on the issue of abortion as it relates to fighting for the rights of the GLBT community than to combine it and lose the support of those who otherwise would work with you on other worthwhile causes."

PLAGAL is, of course, a group founded on the abortion issue, whereas NGTLF, HRC, the Victory Fund, and many others claim to represent the interests of gays and lesbians in general, assuming an ideological consistency interlinked with our sexual orientation.

Finally, check out a letter we've posted from Scott Tucker, who writes:

As a supporter of HRC (and a conservative on most other political issues), I was more than disheartened when my e-mail inbox gave me an invitation from HRC to "March for Women's Lives and HRC." The e-mail further encouraged me to "Join HRC in support of reproductive freedom and justice for all women." How sad indeed that the greatest GLBT rights organizations refuse to reach out to all gay Americans. I have tremendous respect for HRC. But can I continue to give them my support if I am pro-life? I haven't decided yet.

What a shame that so many gay groups, even those who feign to be non-partisan (and how they must laugh at that howler), insist that everyone dance to the left's music when it comes to abortion, welfare, racial preferences, and on and on and on.

More from the political correct grievance collectors whose self-righteousness only slightly masks their partisan politics. Matt Coles of the ACLU's Lesbian & Gay Rights Project has denounced an exchange between New York Republican Gov. George Pataki (who in 2002 supported and signed a law banning anti-gay discrimination) and GOP state senate leader Joe Bruno. As reported in 365gay.com's hyperbolically headlined "NY Gov Under Fire For Gay Slur," this was the "offensive" exchange:

At a public event [the opening of a power plant] "Bruno turned to the Gov. and said that they "make love" - most of the time. "I've been proud to partner with this governor - most of the time," said Bruno, drawing laughter from Pataki and several others in the audience. Bruno, who has had some notable battles with Pataki over the state budget and other issues, told the audience that "like all good partners, occasionally you don't partner. But you kiss, you make up and you make love most of the time."

When Pataki took to the podium he carried the references to gay couples further. "I don't mind making love to you. Just don't ask me to marry you," the governor said.

And the response:

"Governor George Pataki was way out of line in his disparaging comments about same-sex marriage," said Matt Coles director of the [ACLU] project. "The governor may think it's funny that he can't marry Senator Bruno, but after he stops laughing he can go home to his wife. The joke isn't so funny for people who get turned away when their partners are in emergency rooms -- or people who pay for "family" insurance but can't include the love or their lives"

Now, the issue of marriage equality is one that we fervently support, for the reasons Coles notes, among others. But to take the banter between Pataki and Bruno as a "slur" meant to disparage gay marriage is ludicrous. If anything, the fact that two straight politicos feel free to joke about making love to each other is a sign of cultural progress. But recognizing this would hardly score points with Coles' political constituency.

In response to a colleague who asked the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to explain its anti-gun ownership press release (see our April 17 posting), GLAAD's John Sonego responed, in part:

"Some of the LGBT organizations we work with also had concerns, including specifically gun-related concerns, and we were happy to have the opportunity to include them, both as a news hook and as a service to our sister organizations."

No mention of why the Pink Pistols, a group of gay and lesbian gun owners and 2nd Amendment defenders, aren't considered a "sister organization," though.

No Family Picnic.

The Washington Post delves into the blowup around anti-gay activist Randall Terry's adopted son coming out.

Asked if he tried to broach this subject with his parents, Jamiel returns a look that suggests you're on crack. As he noted in Out magazine: "When you grow up in a house where to be the thing you are is an abominable sin, you tend to try and shed those behaviors."

Jamiel even went to Vermont to work with his father against civil unions. Now that he's broken free, here's hoping him all the best.

Rights for Me, but Not for Thee.

Perhaps nothing is sadder than anti-gay clergymen who hold themselves out as champions of the black civil rights struggle. Writing in the Baltimore Sun, the Rev. Dick Richardson is a case in point. Taking aim at gays who make the civil rights analogy, Richardson declares:

It boggles our mind that some folks today want to compare the time-honored institution of traditional marriage to the despicable institution of slavery. ...

The time-honored institution of marriage is under attack. And activists pushing for same-sex "marriage" ... will prevail unless people who know the value of traditional marriage put up a resistance on behalf of children.

But, he pontificates, "the defense of marriage is not about discrimination. ... The defense of marriage is about children. It is about lifting them up." Just not children like Jamiel Terry.
--Stephen H. Miller

Jonathan Rauch's Gay Marriage received high praise in a Sunday Washington Post Book World review by the distinguished civil rights historian David J. Garrow, who writes:

Rauch astutely notes how "peculiar" it is that adversaries energetically denounce "the 'homosexual lifestyle' -- meaning, to a large extent, the gay sexual underworld -- while fighting tooth and nail against letting gays participate in the institution which would do the most to change that lifestyle." Rauch is too courteous to observe that this discrepancy suggests that a racist-like loathing of gay people as innately inferior, rather than just a desire to "defend" marriage, may motivate many outspoken opponents.

Garrow also observes, "Rauch is -- no lefty-liberal, nor is he a gay cheerleader." Just an honest and perceptive writer, but we knew that already.

The Chicago Tribune's feature on the Log Cabin Republican is one of the better pieces on the group and its struggles. The Trib notes, among other things, that Democrats have stepped up their efforts to recruit gay Republicans (four years ago, exit polls showed Bush received support from 25% of all self-identified gay voters, or a cool 1 million votes). Get this:

On its Web site, the DNC posts a feature called "Leaving the Log Cabin" including samples of what it claims are "the hundreds of e-mails we've received from proud new Democrats."

That's a little too reminiscent of Christian right "gay conversion" web sites, I'd say. In any event, the Trib reports that, when pressed, a Democratic official admits there were "about 100 such e-mails." Over at the RNC website, however, there's no mention of gay Republicans at all, though it otherwise has links to all manner of GOP constituency groups.

The Trib also says that LCR's plans for the GOP presidential convention in New York City

include the renting out of Manhattan's elegant Bryant Park for a Log Cabin reception on the convention's eve --"literally a big-tent event under a big tent"-- with Republican Govs. George Pataki of New York and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California as hosts, [LCR head Patrick Guerriero] said.

Guerriero urged delegates to use the August convention as an opportunity to display to the country and to the party that there are "thoughtful, conservative gay Republicans" and to "celebrate the fact there is a big tent in the Republican Party."

Otherwise, he said, "If we abandon it, the far right will be able to claim it as their convention."

But all gay gatherings in NYC this August won't be so polite. The AP reports that a number of gay activist groups are planning large, and no doubt angry, demonstrations. Whether they join with all the manifold zanies in one of their "grand coalitions of the left" unity fests (e.g., confer yesterday's item about GLAAD's anti-gun rights crusade) will be interesting to see.

Not Even Evangelicals Support It.

A new poll commission by US News & World Report & PBS, and conducted by the respected polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, has some surprising results. Summarizes the Religion News Service:

Researchers found that while evangelicals were generally opposed to gay marriage -- 83% -- that view did not equate with a universal call for a constitutional amendment banning such unions. 41% of evangelicals said an amendment is needed while 52% said it was sufficient to prohibit gay marriage by law without changing the Constitution. Moreover, evangelicals were almost evenly divided over whether gay marriage would provide a litmus test for their vote in an election.

Andrew Sullivan has already made the obvious point -- Karl Rove's strategy is in meltdown.

More Recent Postings

4/11/04 - 4/17/04

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has issued a press release, "Vice Presidential Keynote Address to NRA Raises Concerns Among LGBT and Anti-Violence Organizations," condemning VP Dick Cheney's planned speech before the National Rife Association. GLAAD makes the point that Cheney is defending constitutional rights for gun owners but not for gays. That's a fair point, if somewhat off target for an anti-defamation group. But GLAAD then quotes extensively (and solely) from other gay and left-liberal groups that vehemently oppose gun ownership. Take a gander (remember, this is within GLAAD's press release):

• Gay Men of African Descent - "The NRA...perpetuates a culture of violence that in no small way affects vulnerable communities (i.e. communities of color and the LGBT community)."
• Mano A Mano - "The NRA...refuse to recognize that advocating the removal of a ban on assault weapons in this country does enormous damage to vulnerable populations, particularly in urban environments where many Latinos live and work."
• Al Fatiha - "Since the Sept. 11 attacks on America, there has been a 300% increase in violence against Muslims in the United States..."
• The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs - "'Firearms are America's true 'weapons of mass destruction.' "

The clear message: GLAAD is incontrovertibly positioning itself as part of the anti-gun coalition. So much for supporting "diversity" in representations of the gay community! One wonders, have these people ever heard of the Pink Pistols, a network of gay gun owners, or the many, many other gays and lesbians who support the right to bear arms (some of whom, when attacked by bashers, saved their lives because they were carrying)?

Spain will legalize same-sex marriages and grant equal rights to gay couples under incoming Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government, Reuters is reporting. The move is significant because Spain is one of Europe's most Catholic countries and the Vatican, as we all know, condemns same-sex unions with a vehemence.

Yes, the left does have its uses. But otherwise, I'm viscerally appalled and sickened by the new Spanish government. By shamefully declaring that his country would withdraw its coalition troops from Iraq in the wake of the terrorists pre-election attack in Madrid, Prime Minister-elect Zapatero sent a clear message of capitulation to the most fascistic enemies of freedom. He has greatly escalated the odds of more attacks, probably tied to swaying elections toward pro-withdrawal candidates, 'cause it worked so well in Spain. And he has heightened the resolve of the blood-thirsty murderers within Iraq. I won't even get into the harm that his anti-market, anti-trade policies will cause the global economy.

Time and again, the liberal-left parties that are horrific on economics and security are the ones most likely to support gay legal equality. And that is the challenge we face.

Fortunately, there are some exceptions -- in Great Britain, the leader of the Conservative Party, who once supported anti-gay legislation, has now endorsed Tony Blair's Civil Partnership act, which grants marriage-like rights to same-sex couples. In fact, the Tories recently held a "summit" to discuss reaching out to young gay voters.

But in America, those of us who support legal equality for all citizens, economic freedom, and the will to defend those freedoms, often have to make extremely difficult election choices -- as explored by the New York Times Magazine last week, when it reported that "The prospect of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is leading Log Cabin Republicans to question whether they can support George Bush in November."

Marriage Evolved, and Evolving.

Time and again, opponents of same-sex marriage claim that the institution's strength has been its immutability over millennial. But as two anthropologists write in the Washington Post, "The human record tells us otherwise." For instance:

the cult of romantic love in a companionate marriage is a recent innovation in the history of marriage. -- Marriage, in other words, is not only diverse across cultures but also dynamic and changing in America's own history".. This said, it is not the case that "anything goes." Every society favors forms of union that conform to its ethical standards and its needs.

And in America, our ethical standards, at their best, emphasize liberty and justice, not perpetuating discrimination for tradition's sake.