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.
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