Posted on 06/24/2002 6:46:28 AM PDT by I_Publius
Jun 23, 2002 The Associated Press Some facts and figures regarding openly gay and lesbian elected officials in the United States: NUMBERS: Of 511,039 elected federal, state and local officials, 218 are openly gay or lesbian. Of the group, 149 are men, 69 women; 207 are Democrats, 11 Republicans. Three serve in the U.S. House, 47 are state legislators, and the rest are local officials. --- CONGRESS: The openly gay members of Congress are Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz.; and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. A Maine legislator, Susan Longley, hoped to join Baldwin as the second uncloseted lesbian in Congress, but narrowly lost the Democratic primary June 11. --- MAYORS: Tempe, Ariz., population 158,000, is the largest city with an openly gay mayor. An openly gay candidate lost a runoff election June 4 in his bid to become mayor of Long Beach, Calif., population 461,000. --- LEGISLATORS: Noteworthy gay legislators include Illinois state Rep. Larry McKeon, who is HIV positive; state Rep. Glen Maxey, who is stepping down after 10 years as the only openly gay legislator in Texas; and Carole Migden, who is leaving her San Francisco-area assembly seat to run for statewide office. --- Source: Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. AP-ES-06-23-02 2108EDT Facts and Figures About Gay Officeholders
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAB3SMNT2D.html
Jun 24, 2002
While their ranks have quadrupled in the past decade, out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians represent only 218 of the roughly 511,000 Americans in elective office - less than 0.05 percent. Three serve in Congress, 47 are state legislators, the rest are local officials, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, the largest organization that recruits homosexuals to run for office.
The fund is inviting gay candidates to a four-day workshop next month in Washington. Among the key lessons awaiting them: Be ready for tough questions, and reach out vigorously to non-gay voters.
"You'd be hard pressed to find any voting district with a gay majority," said Victory Fund spokesman Jason Young. "You can never win on that issue alone."
Ed Murray of Seattle, a Democratic state representatives since 1995, is among the grateful alumni of previous workshops.
"The most useful part was the tough reality check they put us through, to be sure we could do it - the personal qualifications, the fund-raising," said Murray, now Washington state's longest-serving openly gay official.
In Georgia, Karla Drenner is completing a pioneering first term in the state House of Representatives. A white Democrat representing a mostly black district near Atlanta, she is first openly gay state legislator in the Southeast.
Though she still detects some hostility at the Statehouse, her initial sense of isolation has eased to the point where she is welcomed into lawmakers' pickup basketball games.
"Even the Republicans will joke with me," she said in a telephone interview.
A self-described moderate, Drenner occasionally casts votes that dismay her more liberal Democratic colleagues. She has fought bills she considered anti-gay, but has no illusions about pushing ambitious gay-rights legislation.
"The gay elite in Georgia would perhaps not consider me as strong an activist as they would like," she said. "But I don't have the seniority or colleague support to push an agenda like that. You lose political capital if you do that when you know it will fail."
The Victory Fund will contribute funds to viable, openly gay candidates of any party, provided they support gay rights. Candidates do not have to endorse all major goals of gay activists, such as legalized gay marriage, Young said.
Decisions can be difficult, particularly when an inexperienced gay candidate challenges a straight incumbent with a strong record supporting gay rights.
In a Chicago-area congressional race this year, the Victory Fund has declined to endorse the gay, Democratic challenger to the straight, Republican incumbent - U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk - figuring the candidacy will fail. Another major gay-rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, has endorsed Kirk because of his voting record.
"Our focus is gaining clout, building strength in Congress," said Human Rights Campaign spokesman David Smith. "The Victory Fund mission is supporting openly gay candidates at every level. We have the same goals, but we're getting there through different routes."
Northeastern and West Coast states have been the most open to gay candidates, while few have succeeded in the South and Great Plains. Wherever they run, they should be candid from the outset about their sexual orientation, Young said.
"As soon as you do that, the voting public believes a level of trust has been established," Young said. "You can say that your honesty on this issue is symbolic of your honesty on a whole host of issues."
Even in the staunchly liberal Upper West Side of Manhattan, running as a gay candidate is a challenge, said Daniel O'Donnell. The brother of talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell, he is the front-runner in a State Assembly race that could make him the first openly gay man in New York's Assembly. State Sen. Thomas Duane is also openly gay.
"As a general rule, people in New York City are very tolerant," O'Donnell said. "But I've had people at street fairs come up and tell me, 'I have a real problem with you being gay.'"
Among the gays waging their first campaign this year is Rick Musiol, who hopes to be elected state representative from a middle-of-the-road district where Cape Cod branches out from the rest of Massachusetts.
Musiol's parents were longtime officials in their hometown of Bourne, and he spent nearly five years in Boston as a state senator's aide.
"It's tough, putting your life out there for public scrutiny," Musiol said. "Try being a 27-year-old gay man talking to a cranberry grower whose family has worked the bogs for generations. It's intimidating at times."
Though he has welcomed endorsement by the Victory Fund, he doesn't intend to make his sexual orientation a campaign issue.
"I wonder who knows and who doesn't," Musiol said. "I don't shout it from the rooftops. That's not the type of person I am."
But if his homosexuality is raised by others, "Fine, bring it on. I have a lot to be proud of.
"What people want most is someone who's going to work hard on their behalf, whether you're black, white, gay, straight," he said. "They want someone who's going to be there for them."
---
On the Net:
AP-ES-06-24-02 0724EDT
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA9PDN9U2D.html
It's interesting the way those clauses - the ones that contain no information - so thorougly skew the perception of the reader.
The unbiased headline would have read:
Despite Best Efforts, Openly Gay Elected Officials Remain a RarityThat's the truth. That's the news. Not that journalists are biased ... nope ... nope... nothing to see here.
Shalom.
Perhaps the Biblical solution?
Nice list, thanks.
"Live thy neighbor as thyself"?
We gain some understanding of the problem when homosexuals are exposed as criminals, predators, and/or extreme. But the media is not willing to portray those cases. Whenever conservatives expose those cases, they are cast as "homophobes." But by and large, most Americans won't wake up on this issue until it is too late. What does "too late" look like? Children will be required to learn and be tested on these lies in schools; predators/criminals will be protected by law; anyone who might counter the lies will be censored; those who leave the lifestyle of lies will be invalidated; there will be open and obvious advertising of the lies in very public arenas. Are we there yet?
What must be done, and it may be an impossible task for most people at this late stage of the gay activist war against traditional morality, is to draw a distinction between homosexual behavior/lifestyle and the person. One can and should extend every courtesy and consideration due the latter while steadfastly refusing to condone, celebrate, or dignify the former.
In everyday life I interact with many men and women who classify themselves as gay or lesbian. I have never thrown stones at them; I have never harassed them or cursed them. I treat them with the same dignity as is due any other human being. At the same time, many if not most of them know how steadfastly opposed I am to the homosexual/behavior lifestyle. If they try to push acceptance of it, they get stiff resistence and I strive to make their attempt a singularly unpleasant experience for them at the level of words. If they back away, we get along famously again. If they don't back away, then I shun them until they do. If that means further interaction is completely forfeit--so be it.
Shame, loathing, and disgust should be the dominant, shared sentiment of the great majority about the homosexual behavior/lifestyle. It isn't. The homosexual lifestyle has been glomorized by Hollywood and popular culture, and politicized by liberals in Congress. The great mass of the sheep have been bamboozled into believing that unless they celebrate, applaud, or show fawning acceptance of the homosexual behavior/lifestyle they are evil people or bad citizens. This is because they have been conditioned to view homosexuality as forming a person's core existence--a sense of "being"--rather than a set of behaviors.
Some of us still resist the dominant pro-gay sentiment that has overwhelmed American society. Some of us will always resist it.
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