Gays vs. Democratic Party | Washington D.C. | Advocate.com

Gays vs. Democratic Party | Washington D.C. | Advocate.com

In 2004, Andy Szekeres, then a 21-year-old budding Democratic strategist with several political campaigns already under his belt, was working as the Wisconsin LGBT field coordinator for John Kerry’s presidential campaign. Szekeres estimates that he and his team registered 26,000 new gay voters across the crucial swing state that year, and on Election Night, Kerry won the state by about 11,000 votes—less than 0.5% of the overall vote. Though the win can be attributed to the support of various constituencies, there’s no question that Wisconsin would have wound up red—not blue—if it hadn’t been for gay voters’ strong backing of the Democratic ticket.

Fast-forward five years to Maine, where social conservatives proposed and funded Question 1, a November ballot initiative that, like Proposition 8 in California, successfully repealed marriage equality in the state. Szekeres worked as finance director for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, which opposed the initiative. But he says his experience with the Democratic Party was significantly different this time. While the national party had been more than happy to enlist the support of gay donors and campaign workers in its effort to get Kerry elected in 2004, it couldn’t be bothered to involve itself in the fight to maintain those voters’ and workers’ right to marry.

Much, much more follows this intro at the Advocate's website.

From AMERICAblog:

Joe and I are launching today a donor boycott of the DNC. The boycott is cosponsored by Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Andy Towle and Michael Goff of Towle Road, Paul Sousa (Founder of Equal Rep in Boston), Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler (ED of the Equality Campaign, Inc.), Bil Browning for the Bilerico Project, and soon others.

It's really more of a "pause," than a boycott. Boycotts sounds so final, and angry. Whereas this campaign is temporary, and is only meant to help some friends - President Obama and the Democratic party - who have lost their way. We are hopeful that via this campaign, our friends will keep their promises.

So please sign the Petition and take a Pledge to no longer donate to the DNC, Organizing for America, or the Obama campaign until the President and the Democratic party keep their promises to the gay community, our families, and our friends.

I confess that I have mixed feelings about this. It's very true that the DNC has frequently defriended gays once an election was over. AMERICAblog puts forth some damned good reasons why the DNC itself is a poor ally, and shows where the Obama Administration is supporting policies they promised to get rid of. Unfortunately, most of our best advocates are still Democrats. It's sort of like having a good friend whose husband is an absolute boor. Do you invite neither of them, or both of them, to your wedding? Or is that a poor choice in examples?

Boycotting on my part would be an empty gesture. I don't donate to the DNC or Organizing for America anyway, since I don't have much money to spare. I did put time towards Obama's campaign last year, but right now he's in office and isn't asking for me to put up yard signs. So, for the time being, I plan to continue my current policy of supporting individual gay-friendly candidates with my time and, sometimes, money.

However, if you want to sign the pledge, go here.

Olbermann on Prop 8

Gads, I love listening to this fellow.

Update on KY Farm Bureau Violating Fairness Ordinance

Page One Kentucky reports:

In what could be considered one of the biggest stories ever about the historic Fairness Ordinance that protects individuals from discrimination on several fronts, the 8th District Circuit Court in Jefferson County has ruled that Todd Eklof can sue Kentucky Farm Bureau for violating the ordinance.

POK has made the court document available (click on the pic to read).

FINALLY! Beshear Starts Fixing Some Fletcher Damage

Ryan Alessi is reporting that:

1. The Labor Cabinet will become a standalone department again;

2. Beshear is restoring the Governor's Employee Advisory Council (which gives labor groups the opportunity to discuss issues directly with the governor); and

3. Beshear has restored the executive order protecting gay employees. When I spoke to Beshear at the Change For Kentucky summit last year, he promised me that this last item would happen. I'm glad that he followed through!

From the Herald-Leader:

"Experience, qualifications, talent and performance are what matter," Beshear said in a statement.

Democratic former Gov. Paul Patton signed an executive order in 2003 aimed at protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender state employees. The policy also bars discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, age and religion.

But Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher removed sexual orientation from the list of specifically protected characteristics as part of an executive order he signed on Diversity Day in April 2006.

I haven't been very impressed (at least, not favorably) with the 'regime change' in Frankfort up till now. Are things taking a turn for the better?

Ralph Long: Know Your Friends (and those who aren't)

From Ralph Long's blog:

I recently got a couple of Fund Raising emails from http://www.kentuckyvotes.com/. The emails came from Kelly L. Smith [postmaster@bipps.org]. Now I subscribe to this site, along with a number of other sites and I know its run by the same folks that run the Bluegrass Institute. Kentucky Votes is a pretty good service if you ignore most of the comments on the site.

The subject of the email was KentuckyVotes.org_A Testimonial from Norman Davis and contained this line.

Our friend and colleague, Norman Davis of Clarkson, Kentucky, is a regular user of Kentucky Votes. No big deal, I’m a regular user of Kentucky Votes. But to think that Norman Davis endorsing something will get me to pony up some bucks, well that’s not going to happen.

For those of you who don’t know who Norman Davis is let me introduce you. Davis is the leader of a coalition of groups called Take Back Kentucky.

A 2004 Kentucky Department of Justice Report - Hate Crime and Hate Incidents in the Commonwealth of Kentucky lists Take Back Kentucky as a Patriot Group.

Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order” or advocate or adhere to extreme anti-government or conspiratorial doctrines.

Ralph says that he won't be giving money to this group any time soon. I would suggest that everyone do the same before ponying up for any candidate or interest group that contacts them during this election year.

Time to Change Your Insurance

When the Lexington City Council was debating its Fairness Ordinance some years back, a man representing himself as being from KY Farm Bureau urged them not to pass it, adding that they would go to hell if they did. I hoped he was speaking only for himself, but it appears to be policy!



Time to look for insurance someplace else, Kentucky...