Maybe they should borrow talking points from Howard "Metrosexual" Dean?
Posted on 11/17/2003 1:01:28 AM PST by H8DEMS
Chrissy Gephardt takes a slightly different approach to politicking than her father, U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.). Boasting a master’s degree in social work and a close relationship with the gay community, Chrissy Gephardt says she has established a rapport with interest groups that her father — a contender for the presidency in 2004 — has cozied up to from afar.
While Gephardt campaigns for issues such as more sustainable energy sources and universal pensions, his daughter tours the nation to draw students to his voter base. Now a fulltime employee of Gephardt for President Inc., she makes frequent visits to university communities — most recently to several Michigan universities last week — to address the Gephardt stance on issues such as civil unions between gay couples and improving mental health care nationwide. At every turn, she says she and her father have devoted themselves to the social betterment of all Americans.
“One of the things I’m committed to is social justice,” she said Friday in an interview with The Michigan Daily, after addressing students in the School of Social Work and supporters of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. She added that campaigning for her father “is just one of those things to escalate on that path.”
Although her career in social work began after finishing graduate school about six years ago, her public pursuit of gay rights has culminated during the last two years, since she first told her family that she was gay.
Much to her surprise, she said, her father — who grew up in a small, conservative town in Iowa — embraced her newfound identity and has encouraged her to speak openly about her sexual orientation on her campaign stops.
Reflecting on her experiences on the campaign trail, she says she has helped her father connect to a diverse and complex constituency. Since enlisting his daughter in his campaign, Gephardt has joined Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays — a civil rights organization — according to PlanetOut, an Internet news and networking service for gay people.
“I definitely have inroads into young people (my father) doesn’t … from social workers to the mental health community to the GLBT community,” Chrissy Gephardt said. “He has the big message that appeals to everybody, but I can appeal to them and speak their interest.”
One interest she has advocated — and one that her father has not warmed up to politically — is the federal sanctification of gay marriages.
Currently, no states other than Vermont recognize civil unions between same-sex couples and none recognize gay marriage. The Bush administration has forthrightly opposed gay marriage.
Where same-sex couples have formed civil unions — which carry some legal benefits but not as many as official marriages — the process pales in comparison to the decorated ceremony of a heterosexual unions, Ms. Gephardt said.
“Civil unions will accomplish equality under the law and I think that’s what the government is in the business of doing,” she said. “But it doesn’t give the same status (as marriage),” which she hopes to have someday with her current partner.
Social equality, she said, has remained the centerpiece of her platform. Apart from seeking parity for the gay community, Ms. Gephardt has sought to improve the status of the mentally ill. Shortly after receiving her master’s, she began counseling homeless women with a history of trauma at the Anacostia Community Outreach Center in Washington. She added that her experiences there served as a sobering introduction to the maltreatment received by many victims of mental illness.
“We need to just take mental health illness more seriously and not stigmatize it,” she said. “The majority of the mentally ill are incarcerated. We like to incarcerate people in this country who don’t demonstrate the model of people who are treatable.”
During her address to University social work students, Ms. Gephardt said mental health patients have had a particularly hard time gaining coverage for treatment.
“Under our health care policy, (mental illness) needs to be treated as any illness is treated,” she said, adding that victims of mental illnesses should have access to the same amount of care as cancer patients.
Ms. Gephardt said her commitment to assisting the socially disadvantaged is also a staple of her father’s campaign. Objectives of his presidency include establishing an international minimum wage to protecting affirmative action programs at colleges and universities.
“He says, ‘I just want to fight for people like my parents, who just want to earn an honest living and get up everyday and support their family,’” Ms. Gephardt said.
We win the sensitivity game!!!!
Maybe they should borrow talking points from Howard "Metrosexual" Dean?
Becoming? I think we've become it long ago when special interest groups force the 10 Commandments out of a courthouse, challenge the very word "God" in our Pledge of Allegiance, and the courts of our land have forbidden a mother from raising her child under Christian mores because it is offensive to her ex-husband.
The future you fear is here. Now the big question is "What are we going to do about it?"
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