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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 2, 1998)
October Z 1998 * ju s t out. 1 3 Ï77ÎT7TÏT7TÏT1 news ice President A1 Gore had a simple message to bring to the Human Rights Campaign dinner held in the nation’s capital on Sept. 19: “Equal opportunity for all, special privileges for none.” HRC, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a national gay and lesbian political organiza tion. During the event, Gore boasted that the Clinton administration has appointed record numbers of openly gay and lesbian people to positions within the administration. Before Clinton and company, Gore claimed, “Gays and lesbians were effectively barred from holding jobs in their own federal government.” He noted, “W e’ve come a long way.” Not surprisingly there was no mention that the federal government, with its “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue" military policy, remains the United States’ largest employer that dis criminates against gay men and lesbians. “We are determined to stand for justice and the American dream being available to all of the people in this great nation of ours,” Gore said. “T he United States Senate should join us in that crusade and confirm Jim Hormel as the next ambassador to Luxembourg. Let’s give him the up or down vote that he deserves.” Senate Republican leaders have blocked a vote on confirming Hormel, in part to protest V G ore and G ay F olks The vice president pushed the right buttons and glossed over some troublesome (acts in his speech at an HRC event by Bob Roehr From left: Elizabeth Birch passes an award to A1 Gore while Tipper Gore looks on what some have called Hormel’s promotion of a “gay lifestyle.” A t the dinner, Gore endorsed the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which seeks to bar employment discrimination on the NGLTF O ffers S ketch basis of sexual orientation. ENDA is the crown jewel of H RC’s legislative agenda. He also used the opportunity to tout the administration’s sup port for increases in AIDS-related funding. “We will not stop until all people have access of to the treatment that they need. We will nor rest until we have a vaccine, and until we have a cure for A ID S,” he pledged. Gore failed to note, however, that Congress has consistently appropriated more money to bolster A ID S programs than the W hite House has requested. “We haven’t always agreed on everything and I can’t promise that we always will,” Gore told the audience. “But I can promise an open door, an open mind, and an open heart, a frank and open dialogue that can help us learn from one another and move forward together.” Earlier in the evening, Elizabeth Birch, H RC ’s executive director, praised the Clinton administration. “Let us he a nation where people can seek forgiveness. And let us not become a nation of hunters and the hunted, a condition that our community knows all to o well,” she urged. Birch called the current political climate one “marked by confusion, and anger, and dema goguery, and hypocrisy.” She attacked the Chris tian Coalition, meeting just a few blocks down the street, as having “more in common with the Inquisition." She then blasted the recent anti-gay adver tising campaign as an effort to “shame you, to quash you, and to take from you your hard- earned self-esteem and courage." She concluded, “They will fail.” G ay V oter Research results reveal an increase in queer voter turnout and a significant faction of Republicans by Bob Roehr T he National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has released Out and Voting: The G ay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Vote in Congressional H ouse Elections, 1990'1996, a report dubbed an “in- depth profile of the gay, lesbian and bisexual voting block and the first-ever analysis of the impact of this emerging constituency on nation al congressional elections.” Robert Bailey, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, conducted the study, which was released at a Sept. 16 news confer ence in Washington, D.C. Based on the findings, Bailey concludes gay, lesbian and bisexual voters comprised 5 percent of voters who cast ballots during the 1996 con gressional election. It was a larger subgroup than Asian American (1.1 percent), Jewish (3.4 per cent), or Latino (4 5 percent) voters, and half the size of the African American (10.1 percent) voting block. “Marshaling an identifiable vot ing block is important in a democracy,” says Rich executive director of Log C abin Republicans. radical right has that we make up only 1 percent or less of the popu lation, a blatant untruth that Robert Bailey’s thor ough, objective numbers effectively dehunk.” Bailey analyzed exit-poll data gathered by the Voter News Service for a consortium of major media clients. Gay, lesbian and bisexual voters were those who self-identified as such on those surveys. The per centage grew from 1.3 percent in 1990 to 5 per cent in 1996. Bailey attributes the increase in part to changes in attitudes that make the community feel more comfortable in self-identi fying as gay, lesbian or bisexual, as well as efforts by gay groups to get out the vote. He found the self- identified sexual minority voter tends to be slightly younger, better educated and less affluent than the average voter. Out and Voting also shows the gay, lesbian and bisexual to be bipartisan. More than out of four (28 percent) of queer voters went with the G O P in the 1996 congressional elections. Tafel maintains Bailey’s work documents the philosophical diversity of the community. There is a group of gay U .S. citizens “who believe in less government and freedom, indi vidual rights, who would like to vote Republi- can,” he says, adding, “(Democrats] cannot take the gay vote for granted, it is not in their back pocket. That is a good thing." Daniel McGlinchey, interim director of the National Stonewall Democratic Federation, says, “We should start from the premise that the gay vote is up for grabs.” Urvashi Vaid, director of the NGLTF Policy Institute, agrees: “Such...fluid loyalty should send a signal to Democrats that they should not take the (gay, lesbian and bisexual] vote for granted and to Republicans in swing districts that they dismiss this vote at their own peril.” Kerry Lobel, NGLTFs executive director, adds, “Our vote can make a difference. The vot ing booth is not the closet it once was.” ■ O ut and V oting is available from N G LTF for $10 by calling (202) 332-6483, ext. 3327, or it can be downloaded for free with A dobe Acrobat at www. ngltf. org)downloads/outnvotmg. pdf. Rest "e a s y " w ith our ve ry visible means o f support. 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