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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 18, 2004)
june ia. JOM • | U S t O U t ?5 r7ÎT7ïïT7TÎTI news ay Pride kicked off June 6 in W ashington, D .C ., with a forum o f local and national leaders discussing “ Pride + Vote = Power,” the theme o f this year’s celebration. It was no surprise that talk of same-sex mar riage dominated the evening. Most notable were a consensus on principles and a minimum of partisanship. “We’re an economic powerhouse,” said Justin Nelson, co-founder of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. “The prob lem is that some people think we can’t talk about activism and talk about economics in the same sentence.” Nelson added that other communities have used that power to help gain acceptance. “When you take this out of the bedroom and stick it in the boardroom...when you talk about job creation, health care for employees, how do you grow the overall economic health of our community and our nation,” then some people are more likely to listen. Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, was perhaps the most upbeat. She recounted how in 2002, about 5 percent of the U.S. population was covered by laws protecting the rights of trans people. Legislative action and the courts have expanded that to about 45 percent. Keisling could count 30 trans friends who had been fired in the past two years, and yet there is resis tance to including trans people in the Employment Nondis crimination Act. “We are spending so much of our energy Justin Nelson fighting our friends," she said, singling out U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., for criticism. “We have traded the clos eted folks for the assimilators who have sort of gone away. Before, where we couldn’t get most of the people because they were in the closet, now we can’t get a lot of them because they’ve moved on. We’ve shifted that much.” One young member of the audience said: “I think we are all very nervous about what will happen if Bush is re-elected. But in some ways I’m even more scared by the direction of the Democratic Party, because these people are sup pose to be our allies. How can we keep them accountable V' Moderator Jonathan Capehart asked whether U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment but possible P ower P lay D.C. forum forecasts a busy year for queer activists by Bob Roehr gets 12 percent this time,” Catania said. “And what he will have done is hurt two generations of gays who will be outside.” Catania compared it with 1960, when Richard Nixon won about 26.5 percent of Com elius Baker said the sexual minorities the African American vote, but that fell to 12 percent in 1964 under the insensi community should “ take some lessons from the black civil rights movement” tive policies of candidate Barry Goldwater. The G O P has yet to recover. “You have to remember that some resources are being put into marriage." The goal body running for president is going to be is to defeat at least one and hopefully a couple of inherently conservative in the careful them, “so that gay-bashing is not longer politi sense and is not going to put their head on cally acceptable.” Trans leader Mara Keisling slammed on “assimilators” the block," Keisling said. She pointed to Cornelius Baker, executive director of the the importance of a few dozen truly com- Whitman-Walker Clinic, offered tactical advice support of an amendment to the Massachusetts petitive congressional races and to state legisla on likely demonstrations and protests at nation Constitution “kind of sounds like he’s trying to tive races where supporting a campaign can al party conventions this summer. have it both ways. Can we really trust the guy?” have a bigger impact. “We have to take some “I think we can,” said Chrissy Gephardt, les “It has to be about more than lessons from the black civil "George Bush won bian daughter of U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, the presidential election,” Keis rights movement,” he said. D-Mo., who represented the Gay & Lesbian Vic ling said. “I think it is really dan “There is a reason they wore 2 5 percent o f gay tory Fund. It is about “which candidate is going gerous for us to think that we their Sunday best when they to further our rights the m ost.. .[Kerry] is going to have to work with the Democ votes in 2000; he will marched. There was a benefit be leaps and bounds above President Bush.” rats and be anti-Republican.” to that. What happened was be lucky if he gets Republican D.C. Councilor David Catania Bias within the community that our oppressors were unciv said, “There is a common language in this coun against Republicans and conser 12 percent this tim e" il when they unleashed dogs try, and it is called money.” He noted that the vatives can hinder political _ . and fire hoses on people who sexual minorities community is the fourth-largest David CafaniG were ¡n their Sunday church effectiveness, she added. block of contributors to the Democratic Party— Mark Perriello, associate going best, marching in a civil right behind unions, trial lawyers and Jews. director of the Human Rights Campaign Polit- action. It made them look brutal, and that is “What do we expect of ical A ction Com m ittee, when America turned on the South and what the Democratic Party.7 ticked off a list of Demo they saw as oppression. [Queers] should get some cratic candidates who sup “We have made enormous progress; we thing in return. If the com port the Federal Marriage should be very grateful for that,” Baker added. munity is disproportionate Amendment. “We need to “I don’t want to be the skunk at the garden party ly in one party, then we make sure that our commu about that, but I will also say, if we are in a post- really have no place to go,” nity isn’t helping those Civil War period, this may look like what he argued. people simply because they Reconstruction looked like. The black commu Catania raised more have a D beside their nity had a lot; in the South we even held elec than $75,000 for Bush’s re- name.” tive office. And then Reconstruction ended and election. “But there comes Rea Carey, deputy di there was this huge backlash, there was segrega a time when a party does rector of the National Gay tion and Jim Crow. It took anther hundred years something so egregious and Lesbian Task Force, for the progress that we have now. that it makes it impossible said, “When you get down “I think that we are still in a very early stage for us to be at home there,” to it, we are probably going [of the queer civil rights movement]. There is a said Catania, who broke to have at least 10 amend lot of work left to be done. We who work here with Bush when he ments to state constitu in a place like Washington, we are in our announced his support for tions” banning same-sex Harlem Renaissance, but there are a lot of peo the Federal Marriage marriage on the fall ballot. ple who live in Alabama and Mississippi, and we Amendment. 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