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Gay & Lesbian Politicos Take
Centerstage In Recent Caucus
Candidates
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education and policy "must confront the
homophobia, the irrational and divisive
fear, the racism, the victim-blaming that
impede efforts to combat the disease."
Senator Simon and Governor Dukakis
joined Jackson in supporting Surgeon
General C. Everett Koop's call for "frank,
non-judgmental education about AIDS",
and targeted education and prevention
programs for minorities. It is assumed that
the candidates are including women, a
majority of the U.S. population, under the
category of minority.
Vice-President George Bush was the only
Republican who in any way acknowledged
the question of gay and lesbian civil rights.
His only response to such concerns was, "I
believe all Americans have fundamental
rights guaranteed in our Constitution -
rights such as freedom of religion, freedom
of speech, and the right to a jury by trial.
No one group should have special
privileges granted by government."
Only the Reverend Jesse Jackson
supported gay men and lesbians on every
civil rights issue. He was the only.
candidate to specifically support "lesbian
and gay partners being afforded other
benefits granted to heterosexual partners (of
government employees), including health
coverage." Governor Michael Dukakis was
the only candidate who specifically
opposed including partners in homosexual
relationships from government employee
benefit programs. All of the other
candidates chose not to address the issue.
All of the Democratic candidates, except
Senator Gore, promised to make the
Federal Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights bill a
part of their legislative agenda. Only Hart,
Jackson, and Simon, however, promised to
issue an Executive Order banning
discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation in the federal government,
including the military, security agencies,
and federal contractors.
Governor Dukakis opposes such an
Executive Order, stating he "believes that a
legislative solution to the problem would
have broader application." Representative
Gephardt, conversely, "believes that the
Constitution and civil rights laws already
protect individuals in federal government..
. (including) the military... (and) national
security clearances. If, as president, there is
a determination that an Executive Order is
necessary to obtain enforcement, an
Executive Order would be issued."
All of the democratic candidates issued
statements that only "merit and
competence" will be used as hiring
standards, with each assuring his
commitment to equal opportunity.
The issue of women's rights has gained
widespread support among all of the
democratic candidates. They all supported
pasasage of the Equal Rights Amendment
and freedom of choice on abortion. All
except Gephardt and Hart supported
comparable worth standards being factored
into public sector wage scales.
Reverend Jackson was the only candidate
to specifically endorse the equal rights of
gay men and lesbians in child custody,
adoption, and foster care cases. Senator
Simon stated that the "courts need to decide
on a case by case basis issues involving the
right of lesbian and gay people to be foster
parents, adoptive parents or retain custody
of children. These decisions should be
based on the quality of care and love
provided to the child and not the parent(s)
sexual preferences." Governor Dukakis,
who claims to support the equal rights of
gay men and lesbians, protests that his
foster care policy requiring "prior parenting
experience... and other reasonable
indicators of parenting ability" has been
misinterpreted as banning lesbians and gays
from foster placement programs. No other
candidates addressed the question.
Of the ten candidates, only Jackson and
Simon supported a party platform plank
supporting lesbian/gay civil rights.
Southern Voice has not attempted to
cover such areas as national defense, social
policy other than that directly affecting gay
men and lesbians, and the economy. We
urge you to study other publications and
contact the candidates' offices for more
information. Valuable sources of
information include the Georgia League of
Women Voters at (404)522-8683, the
Georgia Democratic Party at (404)681-
1988, and the Georgia Republican Party at
(404)870-2800.
-Chris Duncan
ATLANTA- In an unprecedented move in
, Georgia politics, openly gay men and
lesbians have won elections in the delegate
selection process for both the Republican and
Democratic parties. These men and women
hope to represent the interests of lesbians and
gays at the two party’s national conventions
this summer.
LEGAL (Legislate Equality for Gays And
Lesbians), an Atlanta based Democratic club,
successfully targeted Congressional District
Four and Five in the heart of Atlanta to
receive the brunt of their organizing efforts.
The Democratic caucuses, held during the
early morning hours of January 30th, elected
delegates to each presidential candidate's
slate.
Delegates to the Democratic National
Convention are apportioned in each
Congressional district by the percentage of
votes cast for each candidate during the
upcoming March 8th, Super Tuesday,
primary.
In the fourth Congressional district, which
encompasses much of northeast Atlanta
inside the 1-285 perimeter, Dick Rhodes was
elected to the first delegate slot for Senator
Albert Gore. Melinda Daniels and Paul
Garrard were elected to the third and fourth
delegate slots in the district
In the Fifth Congressional District which
includes most of downtown Atlanta, Gil
Robison and Joe Williford were elected
respectively to the third and fifth Gore
delegate slots.
When asked to explain why Gore's
campaign was targeted to advance the gay
and lesbian cause, Lee Harrington, President
of LEGAL, cited the electability and
acceptability factors of Gore's campaign.
"We felt like the number two vote getter (in
the fifth Congressional district) very likely
was going to be A1 Gore. And in the fourth
district, we felt like Gore would win it" In
addition to the number of popular votes each
candidate would receive, the electability
factor, LEGAL also had to consider the
number of supporters each candidate would
draw to the January 30th caucus meetings.
Harrington stressed Gore's acceptability to
the lesbian and gay communities as a co
factor for the selection of his campaign. Gore
co-sponsored "the AIDS Amendment to the
fiscal '88 year budget... that increased what
Reagan had proposed for AIDS funding by
650 million dollars." This indicates to »
Harrington that Senator Gore is at the very
least "a compassionate person... (if not) the
advocate of gay rights that we might like."
Seemingly homophobic comments by Gore
and his campaign staff in reaction to early
news of LEGAL's success would indeed
seem to indicate that Gore was not an
advocate of gay and lesbian rights. Arlie
Schardt, a national spokesperson for Gore,
was quick to defend his candidate, and
complained that the media had inaccurately
reported the circumstances which led to the
disputed comments.
Schardt claims the candidate was baited by
an Associated Press reporter, whose question
stated as fact that "gay activists were using
the Gore campaign as a tool to reach the
Democratic National Convention, and were
not supporting his (Gore's) candidacy."
Understandably, to Schardt, Gore reacted
with indignation at the thought of being used
as a tool.
To the credit of the Gore campaign, as
soon as they perceived how the story was
being reported, they immediately contacted
Harrington of LEGAL and the elected
delegates to clarify the Senator's position.
When asked to give the Gore campaign's
final position on LEGAL's success, Schardt
said "they did a good job of organizing, got
their delegates elected, and more power to
them."
Dick Rhodes and Melinda Daniels, two of
the delegates elect, are strident in their calls
for fourth and fifth district gay men and
lesbians to vote for Gore. Stressing the
possibility of electing one lesbian and
possibly two gay men to the floor of the
Democratic National Convention, Rhodes
urged people not totally committed to
another candidate to cast their lot with Gore,
"and get people (delegates) who believe in
what we believe to the floor, and maybe we
can help shape the (party) platform."
Lesbian and Gay Republicans have also
made their presence known to party regulars
in their own caucus system. Jeffrey
Laymon, a local gay Republican, won
election along with another gay delegate,
and four gay alternates, to the county
delegate convention. The Republican
process, however, differs sharply from the
Democratic process in that grass root voter
participation is allowed only in the first of
the five step process which eventually
assigns delegates to the Republican
candidates at the GOP National Convention.
According to Laymon, it is unlikely that
he will advance past the next stage, the
county caucus, due to the Republican
system's reliance on long established ties
and coalition among recognized GOP
factions. Laymon attributes the
cumbersome system and lack of knowledge
of gay and lesbian concerns by mainstream
Republican voters to his poor chances of
winning final election as a delegate.
Being active in mainstream politics is a
relatively new concept for gays and lesbians
in Georgia, according to Harrington of
LEGAL. Party politics, which more often
revolve around number crunching than
rhetoric, depend upon bloc voting and
filling slates when determining the relative
power of various groups. Dick Rhodes
remarked on how "fragile the system is" to a
concentrated attempt to gamer power. A
mere three hundred more people, for a total
of four hundred present, would have
allowed LEGAL to capture every delegate
slot in every sub-caucus of the fourth
Congressional district, according to Rhodes.
Political insiders trace the recent surge of
participation in political processes by gay
men and lesbians to the damning evidence
against those currently in power, and their
lack of response to the devastation the AIDS
epidemic has wreaked in the gay and
lesbian community. Beginning with the
National March on Washington for Lesbian
and Gay Rights, many see this growing
activism of gay men and lesbians changing
forever the face of American politics.
-Chris Duncan
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