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SOUTHERN VOICE
NOVEMBER 17/1994
We didn't lose everything on November 8
Sometimes, your instincts help you out,
and sometimes they’re at war inside you. For
example, I am a Taurus, which means I am by
nature instinctively conservative, cautious
about change. I did not vote for Jimmy Carter
either time. And yes, 1 admit it—I was even a
Young Republican in college.
Yet, after becoming an openly gay man, I
became reflexively liberal. I now know that I
will not achieve in my life what I should if
our society doesn’t change and grow, and
expand and figure out how to be more pro
gressive and tolerant of all kinds of differ
ences, mine included. I remember coming out
within a week of Geraldine Ferraro’s nomina
tion as vice-president, and I’ve voted Demo
crat ever since.
So what to make of this tidal wave of
political frustration that crested on top of my
party on November 8th? I found it extremely
painful, almost heart-wrenching, to see such
a disaster befall the only institution of power
that has ever, even slightly, expressed sup
port for me as a gay man. As an individual, I
now feel significantly less safe in this society.
And yet the conservative in me can see
clearly why it happened. Democrats on the
national level had long ago ceased being a
political party, instead evolving into an as
sembly of special interests, one of which was
me, that Democrats manipulated to keep them
selves in control of government. We got
Clinton as president in the first place because
no other Democrat thought they’d win a na
tionwide election, and wouldn’t give up their
seat in Congress or their governor’s chair to
find out.
This nasty, vicious, dismally dishearten
ing campaign that we just came out of is clear
evidence that something is not working.
Democratic leaders like Tom Foley, Dan
Rostenkowski and Jim Sasser could give their
constituents no better reason to vote them
than, “We’re powerful enough to keep bring
ing home the pork, making you rich at the
expense of others’ taxes.” Now, with the dis
appearance of that cushion of votes provided
by racist Southern Congressmen who don’t
believe what the national party stands for, the
Democrats find their 40 years of uninterrupted
Congressional control threatened. Maybe the
opportunity for this tired group of politicians
to revitalize themselves is just what the doc
tor ordered.
I wish there were sufficient Republican
support for civil rights generally, and gay
rights specifically, for me to consider them a
serious alternative. There used to be a Liber
tarian quality of tolerance in Republican
circles. Newt Gingrich himself once claimed
to believe that government should keep out of
people’s bedrooms, ours included. But that
was long before the Republican feeding frenzy
for Right Wing votes kicked in.
I think I’m ready for a liberal third party,
staffed with a few fearless politicians who
could actually stand for something
unpopularly liberal, like gays in the military,
or single payer health insurance. If we’re there
on the left, and Perot’s group forms on the
right, we might actually put some integrity
back into our political system.
Amazingly, on gay issues, this was not a
horrible election. In only one, limited sense
were we even a part of this race—the gays in
the military fiasco that diminished Bill
Clinton’s popularity in the South and Rocky
Mountain West.
In almost every race where we had a per
sonal stake, we did OK. A gay man in Cali
fornia and a lesbian in New York both lost
creditable statewide races; all three openly
gay Congressmen, including Republican Steve
Gunderson, won reelection. The two anti-gay
referenda, in Oregon and Idaho, were defeated,
in spite of the tidal wave of Republican and
Christian Right voters who were drawn to the
polls for this election. Diane Feinstein pre
vailed, while Oliver North succumbed. These
are not results to be slighted.
Some scattered specific observations:
1. It may be years before we know the full
extent of the disaster represented by our gays
in the military debacle. It wasn’t even our top
issue in 1992. Far more of us would have
fought harder if we’d been working on issues
closer to home, like job discrimination. We
managed to ferociously alienate conservatives,
spending enormous amounts of political capi
tal, and ended up humiliating our movement
and costing our centrist president an enor
mous amount of goodwill, that showed itself
in house races all across the South—the po
litical equivalent of a triple play for the forces
of evil.
2. Zell Miller, who may be Georgia’s last
governor for a generation with any hint of
progressive leanings, won. And that may give
us the last chance to take on Georgia’s sod
omy law. If repeal is to happen, it will come
in the next two years, since Olympic pressure
represents the only stick available to sway
our rural legislators. It didn’t work with the
state flag, but with Michael Bowers as our
first Republican governor just around the cor
ner, we might as well try.
3. Wasn’t it fascinating to watch Nancy
Schaefer run, even slightly, away from an
anti-gay past? A quote in the local paper on
the Saturday before the election had Schaefer
saying that “gays deserve every right I have.”
Yeah, right. Can’t we swap her for Ann
Richards?
4. The close victories in Oregon and Idaho,
where statewide anti-gay referenda were on
the ballot was simultaneously heartening and
frustrating. To win in an environment where
Republicans were rolling to victory every
where was a remarkable achievement. But
it’s deeply frustrating to have to continually
spend time and money stamping out bad
things, and not have the time to work to cause
good things to come to pass.
Which leads to the $64,000 Question: Does
Gingrich have any interest in moderating his
party’s social agenda? If he does, he could
turn Republicans into a majority party within
the decade. But our successes in Oregon and
Idaho show that a social revolution is not
what this country voted for. If they think they
won a mandate to implement a conservative
social agenda, they will be shown the door in
two years, just the way the Democrats got
introduced to it this year. Major gay bashing
and an abortion rights rollback will backfire
just as quickly as it did at the 1992 Republi
can convention in Houston, and Newt will be
sharing a room with Tom Foley at the Ex
Speaker of the House Retirement Home.
Marc Morgan
WSB Radio
1601 West Peachtree St., NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
Dear Mr. Morgan,
Recently I wrote to you to express my
disappointment over WSB’s sponsorship of a
home show in Cobb County’s Galleria Cen
ter. As I informed you at that time, Cobb’s
county-run facilities, including the Galleria,
are the target of a nationwide boycott stem
ming from anti-gay resolutions passed by
Cobb’s County Commission.
My disappointment has turned to outrage
upon learning that your companion station,
B98.5 FM, is currently sponsoring the At
lanta Christmas Show, another event
schedulced for Cobb’s Galleria Center. Based
on your actions, it is clear that you do not
value your gay and lesbian listeners.
As a result, I will no longer listen to either
of your stations until you find less controver
sial venues for your sponsored events. I have
already removed WSB Radio AM-750 and
B98.5 FM from my car’s radio preset selec
tions and am encouraging all my friends and
associates to do likewise.
Sincerely,
Ken Leggio
Global Marketing, Limited
STOMBH/ACl F/OTS by ancrc* nataiie
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by CARL LANGE
Postcards from the edge
That singularly-homophobic media
watchdog group—the American Family
Association (AFA) is at it again. The
organization’s Nov. ’94 “Action! Page”
calls upon AFA sympathizers to “Stop
Network TV’s Promotion of Homosexu
ality!”
‘This fall network TV executives will
continue to try to promote homosexual
ity as a normal and acceptable lifestyle”
the AFA alert warns, “Because homo
sexuals cannot ‘reproduce’ themselves,
they are forced to recruit new members.
And the target of their recruitment drives
are OUR CHILDREN.”
The AFA alert also claims that “a
major weapon in all these recruitment
efforts is the distortion of truth.” The
alert explains: ‘This distortion states that
homosexuals are healthy (why then their
fear of AIDS?), happy (why then are
they so bitter and angry?), normal (why
then can’t they reproduce like every other
species on earth?), and everywhere (that
10% of all Americans are ‘gay’)!”
The AFA has effectively scared off
sponsors of television programs that in
clude any reference to gays and lesbi
ans. With this latest “action page,” the
AFA has provided members with three
postcards targeting Philip Morris Com
panies, Inc., McDonald’s Corporation,
and the Ford Motor Company. The cards
call upon the companies to “stop your
financial support of those programs pro
moting the homosexual lifestyle.” “Con
sidering the overwhelming rejection of
the homosexual agenda by the public,”
the cards warn, “I don’t think that a
boycott of (your company) because you
push homosexuality would be difficult
to promote.”
These companies must be encour
aged to reject the latest AFA postcard
campaign.
Contact Chrm. Michael A. Miles,
Philip Morris Companies, Inc., 120 Park
Ave„ New York, NY 10017. tel. 800
343-0975, FAX 212-878-2167; Chrm.
Michael R. Quinlan, McDonald’s Cor
poration, 1 Kroc Dr., Oak Brook, IL
6052, tel. 708-575-3000, fax 708-575
5512; Chrm. Alexander J. Trotman, Ford
Motor Company, P.O. Box 1899,
Dearborn, MI 48121, tel. 800-392-3673.
Should you have any desire to contact
the AFA, they’re based at P.O. Drawer
2440, Tupelo MS 38803, tel. 601-844
5036.
‘Ballot Measure 9’ and
Donna RedWing
Join us in welcoming Donna Red
Wing, GLAAD’s National Field Coor
dinator, on Friday Nov. 18, at 6:30 p.m.
at the new GLAAD/Atlanta office. In
addition to meeting Donna there will be
a viewing of “Ballot Measure 9” the
new and highly acclaimed documentary.
Al Kielwasser, ofGLAAD/SFBA con
tributed to this column. For more infor
mation about GLAAD/Atlanta write PO
Box 55111, Atlanta, GA 30308; 404
876-1398; fax 404-876-4051; internet:
glaadatl @ aol. com.
This column is a product of the Gay
& Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/
Atlanta, Incorporated.
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