It has been eight years since the lesbian and gay community has had the opportunity to help decided a contested Democratic presidential nomination. Since that time, our political clout has grown significantly as a result of increased visibility, genuine social change and polling data suggesting the size and relative cohesion of the lesbian and gay vote.
In this atmosphere of growing political importance, L.I.D. members will meet on Thursday, January 27th to endorse either Vice President Al Gore or former Senator Bill Bradley in the March 7th New York primary (see enclosed flyer for details).
Both candidates have elevated the discussion of lesbian and gay issues to the national agenda and are actively courting lesbian and gay votes. Who would have expected an open discussion of gays in the military or same sex marriage in nationally televised debates just eight years ago? Yet such questions have become common place in Campaign 2000.
To find out more about the candidates, visit the L.I.D. website for links to their campaign sites. The come hear what the candidate representatives have to see, take part in our lively endorsement discussion and cast your vote. Remember, all current L.I.D. members who live in Brooklyn can vote. And if your membership has lapsed since January 1999, you may renew at the door and still be eligible to vote.
Four Lesbian and Gay Delegate Candidates on Brooklyn Ballot
Four openly lesbian or gay delegate candidates -- 3 of them L.I.D. members -- will be on the ballot on March 7th in 2 Brooklyn congressional districts.
In the 10th Congressional District (Major Owens), Jill Harris and Clarence Patton will be running pledged to Al Gore. Harris is the former president of Community School Board 15. Patton, who will be running for an alternate delegate position, is the Director of Community Organizing and Policy Advocacy for the Anti-Violence Project.
In the 11th Congressional District (Ed Towns), Alan Fleishman and Ron Johnson will be running pledged to Bill Bradley. Fleishman is a former L.I.D. president and long time community activist while Johnson is the Director of Public Policy at GMHC. He was formerly Mayor Giuliani's Coordinator for AIDS Policy.
These candidates are the good news. The bad news is that the state Democratic party has a long way to go toward meeting the affirmative action goals required under Democratic National Party rules. As currently written, each state must analyze its electorate and come up with numeric goals that will help delegations reflect local populations.
Getting lesbian and gay candidates "slated" by campaigns remains a puzzlingly difficult task, particularly given the important proportion of votes our community makes up in Democratic primaries. Twenty years after L.I.D. sent its first delegates to a Democratic National Convention, this is not a battle we expect to still be fighting.
Brooklyn St. Pat's Parade Nears
The Brooklyn Irish American Parade is scheduled for Sunday, March 20th. Given the controversy generated by organizer's unwillingness to allow The Lavender & Green Alliance to march in the event in years past, we approach the upcoming event with both hope and trepidtion.
Our hope is that, finally, the parade will be inclusive of all Irish Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation. Our fear is that even the embarassing publicity surrounding the exclusion and arrests of Lavender & Green members at last year's parade is not enough to encourage a change of heart.
Parade Chairperson Kathleen McDonagh has already received a letter requesting Lavender & Green's inclusion. "We hope we will be able to join you and the members of the Irish community in celebrating our Irish heritage by marching as a unit . . . this is our dream. When better to realize this than the year 2000! Where better than Brooklyn," wrote Brendan Fay in an October 4, 1999 letter to McDonagh.
Begun in 1975 to "honor the contributions of the Irish," the Brooklyn parade has none of the religious imprimatur of the Manhattan parade, and its dinner dance journal invites all Irish Americans to join the parade "with banners and flags." But past requests for inclusion have been met by the same old shell game, claiming that the parade is by invitation only (by all accounts, a blatant lie) and declining to reveal how one gets invited or the criteria by which potential marchers are judged.
L.I.D. is closely watching for any movement on this issue and, should Lavender & Green be denied access, stands willing to demand that elected officials stand up and be counted -- without equivocation -- on this issue.
To March or Not to March?
In the past 21 years, lesbians and gays have converged on our nation's capital on three occasions to rally for justice and equality. And in each instance -- in 1979, 1987 and 1993 -- L.I.D. enthusiastically endorsed these events and encouraged participation.
Another such event is slated just three short months from now -- the Millennium March on Washington for Equality on April 30th. L.I.D. has yet to take a position on the March, but will consider the issue at our January 27th meeting.
The Millennium March on Washington for Equality was announced some two years ago by the Human Rights Campaign and the Metropolitan Community Church. Almost from the start, it has been a controversial issue. Some contend that the March was conceived without any grassroots input as to its need or its focus and that it is a prime example of well financed, Washington-based organizations dictating the LGBT agenda.
Author and former Brooklynite Jewelle Gomez summed it up this way: "Washington, D.C. is not the center of the queer universe . . . There is something about the idea that if you are in Washington, you can tell people what to do. But the answers to our issues are not going to be found in Washington; they are going to be found in the communities where we live."
Supporters claim it will empower and inspire voters in an important presidential election year. Organizers tout orchestrating the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender voter turnout in history as one of the major goals of the Millennium March. Organizers also recently approved a platform for the March that includes:
Still others are somewhere in between, claiming to be opposed to or ambivalent about the March, but resigned to the fact that it is going to occur and, therefore, concerned that turnout meets the several hundred thousand participants of past marches.
A visit to the Millennium March web site before Lambda Line went to press reveals that no major New York City lesbian and gay organization has endorsed the March. In fact, only nine organizations in the entire state are listed as endorsers.
To learn more about the March, we encourage you to visit the L.I.D. website and explore the links we have posted about the March. Then join us on January 27th, listen to the discussion and help L.I.D. decide our position.
Brooklyn Reps Get High Flying Grades on Hate Crimes
Brooklyn's Senators and Assemblymembers received high marks from the New York State Hate Crimes Bill Coalition on the first-ever report card grading the performance of the Governor and members of the Legislature on hate crimes legislation. Overall, 8 Brooklyn Senators and 17 Assemblymembers received A+ grades, while the remaining Senator and 3 Assemblymembers received grades of A.
The report card comes as a major push is underway to enact a hate crimes law, which would enhance penalties for bias-motivated offenses, in New York. Such legislation has languished in the State Senate for 11 years. The Assembly has passed a bill for a decade by ever-increasing bipartisan majorities. The Senate Republican Majority, however, has never permitted a floor debate or vote on any hate crimes bill, including the bill proposed by Governor Pataki.
Senators Connor, Kruger, Lachman, Markowitz, Sampson, Santiago and Smith received A+ marks while Senator Gentile received an A. Also support hate crimes legislation and voted for a discharge petition earlier this year to allow a vote on the bill. Gentile is the only Senator who is not a sponsor of a hate crimes bill, thus his slightly lower grade.
Assemblymembers Boyland, Brennan, Cohen, Colton, Cymbrowitz, Green, Hikind, Jacobs, Lentol, Lopez, Millman, Norman, Ortiz, Perry, Towns, Vann and Weinstein were awarded A+ grades, with an A given to Assemblymem- bers Abbate, Griffith and Seddio, who are not sponsors of the hate crimes bill.
Although Governor Pataki publicly supports hate crimes legislation and has introduced his own bill, the Coalition awarded him only a C+, based on the perception that he has not made passage a priority. The day following release of the report card, Pataki dropped the hate crimes bill from his State of the State Address.
The many high profile bias incidents perpetrated against lesbians and gays in our borough over the past decade seem to have sensitized our legislators to the importance of a hate crimes bill. Even legislators who oppose the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) are sponsors and supports of hate crimes legislation. Many thanks to all for their support.