just out ▼ novombor 15, 1995 Til
The vote that peeped
n election day, citizens went to the
polls and said yes to the status quo—
a status quo that in the past two years
hasn’t been very friendly to gay and
lesbian voters. And to the chagrin of
legions of those voters, Newt and Jesse will be
O
back.
But the silver lining inside the results from the
1996 election may be that more and more gay men
and lesbians are going to be on the inside of that
status quo. At least 28 openly lesbian and gay
candidates won their election races. That’s up
from 12 wins in 1994.
And history was made in Vermont, where
State Auditor Ed Flanagan, a Democrat, became
the first openly gay person ever to win a statewide
office anywhere in the country.
“A whole state just voted for a gay man and said
that his qualifications, not his personal life, are
what matter,” says Kathleen DeBold, deputy direc­
tor of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. “Break­
ing through that lavender ceiling is so important.”
Though two openly gay congressional chal­
lengers lost in California and Oklahoma, the two
gay incumbents in the House, Barney Frank of
Massachusetts and Jim Kolbe of Arizona, won
easily. And an African American lesbian, Sabrina
Sojourner, will be the nonvoting delegate repre­
senting the District of Columbia in the U.S. House.
While President Clinton was cruising to re­
election with substantial gay and lesbian support,
poll results from across the country showed that
the U.S. Senate, which earlier this year came
within one vote of outlawing employment dis­
crimination against gay men and lesbians, shifted
to the right, but only slightly. That could make
passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination
Act more of an uphill climb.
Among the 50 senators who opposed ENDA,
43 will be back and six were replaced by people
who are as conservative or more conservative.
Only Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), was defeated,
and the man who defeated him, Democrat Tim
Johnson, has not said whether he’ll support the
measure.
But among ENDA supporters, retiring Sen.
Alan Simpson of Wyoming was replaced by a
strong conservative with ties to the Christian
Coalition, Republican Mike Enzi. And the seat of
retiring Sen. David Pryor of Arkansas, who missed
the ENDA vote because of illness but was thought
to be supportive of the measure, will be assumed
by Republican Tim Hutchinson, an ordained Bap­
tist minister with a very conservative voting record
as a member of the U.S. House.
Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the
Human Rights Campaign, believes that the gay
and lesbian community is still within “striking
distance” of getting ENDA passed. The brightest
news in that regard may have been the win of
Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, whose support of
ENDA and gay rights became a campaign issue
against a Christian Coalition-backed opponent.
Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), an ENDA sup­
porter who was the No. 1 target of Republicans on
the Senate side, also survived.
"There is no question we’ve got a lot of work
to do [to get ENDA passed],” says Birch. “We’re
not naive about that.”
Among the likely targets for HRC lobbying
are Johnson, the new senator from South Dakota,
and Max Cleland, the Democrat who will replace
Georgia’s Sam Nunn in the Senate.
The nation’s most pro-gay governor, Massa­
chusetts Republican Bill Weld, lost his bid to
unseat Democratic Sen. John Kerry in a hard-
fought campaign that divided the Boston lesbian
and gay community. But that isn’t expected to have
any effect on the balance of gay-friendly voting
strength in the Senate, because Kerry has also been
supportive of the community’s political agenda.
However, the Senate will also include, again,
the stridently anti-gay Republican Jesse Helms,
who won 53 percent of the vote in North Carolina
over Democratic challenger Harvey Gantt de­
spite a concerted mobilization against him by
Electors in general stand pat, but a record number of
lesbian and gay candidates pierce the lavender ceiling
▼
by Richard Shumate
Harvey Gantt came close, hut didn ’t defeat Jesse Helms
however, is that California U.S. Rep. Robert
progressive groups, including the gay and lesbian
Doman, perhaps the most bombastic and vocal
community.
anti-gay voice on the political right—a man who
“Once again, he barely squeezed by,” says
ran for president this year to the right of Pat
Mandy Carter, who directed N.C. Mobilization
Buchanan—appears to have been unseated by
’96, a lesbian and gay group formed to help oust
Democrat Loretta Sanchez. At press time Sanchez
Helms. Gantt supporters were hoping that the
was leading, reportedly with 15,000 ballots to be
700,000 new voters who have come to North
counted. She declared victory Nov. 13, but Doman
Carolina since Helms’ last race in 1990 would
has demanded a recount.
break their way. “Obviously, that didn’t happen,”
Looking at the Clinton win and the results of the
says Carter.
Across the Capitol in the U.S. House, control
House races, which narrowed the GOP’s majority
but didn’t erase it, HRC’s Birch says she hopes
stayed in the hands of Republicans and House
Gingrich and company will take away from the
Speaker Newt Gingrich because only a handful of
election the message that the country wants cen­
the Republican freshmen swept into office in 1994
were ousted by Democrats. That freshman class
trist, bipartisan government, not a revolution. And
that is a message that can work for gay men and
provided a bedrock of support for the Defense of
lesbians, according to
Marriage Act, which al­
Birch.
lows states to refuse to rec-
“All of this conserva­
ogni ze the val idi ty of same-
tive revolutionary bra­
sex partners, and denies
vado has been declawed,”
them federal benefits, even
she says. “I think that
if they have been united in
what the country clearly
a state that allows gay men
did is that they went to
and lesbians to marry.
the center. The key [for
The good news for the
lesbian and gay commu­
gay men and lesbians] is
nity is that not a single
the question of whether
opponent of DOMA who
we fall into that center.
ran for re-election lost, in­
And I think the answer is
cluding Democrats in eight
a resounding ‘yes.’ ”
marginal districts where
Prior to the election,
the vote was expected to
the Human Rights Cam­
be a liability. And only
paign commissioned a
one cosponsor of ENDA
poll of gay and lesbian
in the House, Rep. Peter
voters that showed that
Torkildsen (R-Mass.), was
70 percent of them were
ousted—and it was his
planning to support
support of the Gingrich
Clinton, despite his
revolution, including his
mixed record on gay is­
vote for DOMA, that may
sues. He also received
have doomed him in his
HRC’s endorsement.
liberal-leaning district Jim Kolbe won re-election in Arizona
The question now is
near Boston.
what a second Clinton
The father of DOMA, Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.),
term might mean to lesbian and gay voters—and
easily won re-election, and, in his victory speech,
whether their reluctant support of Clinton will be
championed the legislation, saying he was acting
rewarded more than it was four years ago.
to protect the “values” of the people of his district.
“Now the issue will be whether he moves
That district includes part of Cobb County, a sub­
forward with conviction to finish this last stage of
urban Atlanta enclave where county commission­
the civil rights movement. I can’t imagine why he
wouldn’t," says Birch, who believes that, having
ers passed an anti-gay resolution three years ago.
Barr and Gingrich, who beat back a challenge
gotten re-elected, Clinton will now have his eye
from millionaire Democratic businessman Michael
on history.
Coles in the district next door, held side-by-side
In races involving gay candidates, two Demo­
victory parties at the Cobb Galleria Centre, a
cratic challengers tried and failed to oust incum­
county-owned convention facility that has been the
bent U.S. House members. Rick Zbur, who was
target of a boycott by anti-resolution forces.
thought to have a good shot at winning against a
On the bright side for gay men and lesbians.
GOP newcomer in a district based in Long Beach,
Calif., fell short, winning 43 percent of the vote.
Paul Barby, running for a seat in Republican­
leaning Oklahoma, could muster just 36 percent.
In Arizona, Kolbe, who was outed as a gay
man after supporting DOMA, took nearly 69
percent of the vote in the first test of how his
sexual identity would play in a traditionally con­
servative state. During the campaign, signs were
posted around his Tucson-based district which
read “Kolbe: I Have AIDS,” acharge Kolbe called
a “venomous lie.” The signs were linked to both
Kolbe’s Reform Party opponent and the man he
defeated in the Republican primary.
In another repudiation by voters of A1DS-
baiting tactics, Larry McKeon, both openly gay
and openly HIV positive, won a state House seat
in Illinois with 81 percent of the vote, outpolling
even President Clinton in his district. His HIV
status had been used as a campaign issue in both
the general election and by his opponent in the
Democratic primary.
McKeon was one of 16 openly gay or lesbian
candidates supported by the Victory Fund who
won legislative seats. The lower chambers of the
legislatures in Nevada, Connecticut and Montana
will have gay members for the first time. Ten of
the victorious lesbian and gay legislative candi­
dates were being re-elected, a result DeBold calls
"highly significant.”
"This shows that they’re there to stay,” she
says. “These are also strong candidates who can
move up to higher offices in the future.”
The newcomers, in addition to McKeon, in­
cluded: David Parks, a Democrat elected to the
Nevada House; Art Feltman, Democrat, Connecti­
cut House; Diane Sands, Democrat, Montana
House; Ed Murray, Democrat, Washington House;
and MikePisaturo, Democrat, Rhode Island House.
Those lesbian and gay candidates re-elected
included: Chuck Carpenter, Republican, Oregon
House; George Eighmey and Cynthia Wooten,
both Democrats in the Oregon House; Ken
Cheuvront, Democrat, Arizona House; Deborah
Glick, Democrat, New York Assembly; Carole
Migden and Sheila Kuehl, both Democrats in the
California Assembly; Tammy Baldwin, Demo­
crat, Wisconsin Assembly; Tim Van Zandt, Demo­
crat, Missouri House; and Glen Maxey, Demo­
crat, Texas House.
Two gay state senate candidates, Steve May,
an Arizona Republican, and David Curtis, a Ver­
mont Democrat, were involved in close races but
were ultimately unsuccessful.
For the first time in three election cycles, no
statewide anti-gay initiatives were on the ballot in
1996. But voters in Lansing, Mich., defeated a
proposed human rights ordinance that would have
extended protection to gay men and lesbians.
People with AIDS who use marijuana medici­
nally to counteract the effects of anti-viral drugs
will be able to do so legally in California and
Arizona, thanks to passage of initiatives there.
And in Colorado, home of some of the country’s
largest and strongest religious right groups, voters
gave a split decision on two initiatives that had
raised passions on the far right.
Voters rejected a so-called “parental rights”
amendment that would have gi ven parents a “natu­
ral, essential and inalienable right to direct and
control the upbringing, education, values and dis­
cipline of their children.”The measure—opposed
by educators and anti-child-abuse activists—was
being championed by Christian right groups who
hoped that passage in Colorado would lead to
passage in other states.
But Colorado voters also rejected a measure „
that would have imposed property taxes on the
land holdings of all nonprofit organizations, in­
cluding religious groups, which are now tax ex­
empt. If it had passed, the Christian right group
Focus on the Family—which was held up as
exhibit A by supporters of the initiative, who
maintained that such a politically active group
should not be tax exempt—would have had to
shell out $500,000 a year to pay property taxes on
its complex in Colorado Springs.