With the exception of the still uncertain (at press time) presidential race, L.I.D. endorsed candidates swept to victory in the November elections. Hillary Clinton won a surprisingly comfortable victory in the U.S. Senate race, and all 12 state legislative incumbents and 4 members of congress backed by L.I.D. were winners. In addition, L.I.D. member Betty Williams was elected to the Civil Court in the 7th district, and L.I.D. endorsed Joseph Bruno won election to the Civil Court in the 1st district.
New York exit polls did not ask voters their sexual orientation, so we cannot precisely calculate the impact of the GLBT vote in our state, but nationally 4% of all voters - or over 4 million people - self-identified as lesbian or gay. Those voters supported Al Gore by a margin of 70% - 25%. Another 4% supported Ralph Nader.
The results were mixed in other races around the country of interest to the LGBT community. The nation's three openly lesbian or gay members of congress were re-elected, but while Barney Frank and Jim Kolbe won easy victories, freshman Tammy Baldwin won a surprisingly close vote in her Wisconsin district.
Two anti-same sex marriage initiatives passed overwhelmingly - in
Nebraska and Nevada. In Maine, an initiative to ban discrimination based on
sexual orientation went down to a surprising defeat. Despite passive
support from the Roman Catholic Church, the measure lost by a 51-49%
margin. A ballot initiative proposed by the Christian Right in Oregon that
would outlaw all mention of homosexuality in public schools was narrowly
defeated.
L.I.D. Member Makes a
Difference in Florida Vote
The close race for the presidency that boiled down to the excruciatingly tight contest in Florida reinforces the old adage that every vote counts. While few New Yorkers can boast that they helped keep the margin close for Al Gore in the Sunshine State, L.I.D. member Jim de Seve can.
A few days prior to the election, de Seve contacted L.I.D. asking if we had taken a position on Gore voters in safe Gore states (like New York) trading votes with Nader voters in presumably swing states. Officialy, we had not, but we encouraged Jim to follow his conscience and use his power as a voter in any way he saw fit, pointing him to some of the web site available to trade votes with Nader supporters in other states.
Jim visited www.voterexchange.com two days before the election and was matched with a Nader voter in, of all places, Palm Beach County. The two spoke by telephone and both agreed that a President George Bush was not a pleasant thought. As a result of that conversation, the deal was struck: the Nader voter pledged to vote for Gore if Jim voted for Nader. The two have remained in contact since the election.
The impact of this act cannot be overstated. With the margin between
Bush and Gore standing at 0.00007%, that one vote meant a lot. How does Jim
feel about all this? "I like to think I cast a Gore vote in Florida," he
says. "That's a 1/30 of 1% difference at the moment. I can't believe it!"
The Electoral College: It's People
We don't want to revisit 5th grade civics class, or get into a heated debate about the relevance of the electoral college in modern times. But we did want to pause to remind folks that the electors we vote for when casting our presidential ballots are real people, and sometimes they are even lesbian or gay.
For those who may not remember, four years ago, longtime L.I.D. board
member Kay Mackey was a New York elector and cast her vote for Bill
Clinton. Kay has since left New York and moved to, you guessed it,
Florida!
District 15 Passes Boy Scout Resolution
On November 22, Brooklyn's District #15 became the second of New York's 32 school boards to pass a resolution prohibiting school sponsorship of Boy Scout activities. The resolution, introduced by Ana Bermudez, says that "official sponsorship of BSA activities, especially public school sponsorship, may send a message to both gay youth and non-gay youth that discrimination based on sexual orientation is acceptable," and prohibits the board or any of its schools from offering the Boy Scouts any "special privileges, access or recruitment op- portunities" that are not offered to other groups. groups.
In September, L.I.D. had urged Brooklyn Districts 15 and 13 to pass such resolutions in the aftermath of the approval of a similar policy by Manhattan School Board #2. The resolutions are a reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling in June allowing the Boy Scouts to exclude gay youth and adults from participating in BSA activities.
The District 15 resolution passed by a margin of 6-1, with only Robert Bell dissenting and Margaret Kelly and Gary Popkin absent for the vote. Most encouraging, the board's newest member, Wally Basemore, supported the resolution. A Red Hook resident, Basemore was recently appointed to the board to replace Kevin Allard-Mendelson, following his resignation.
As Lambda Line went to press, District 13 is also moving toward
consideration of a similar resolution. Board member Martine Guerrier
convened a committee meeting in late November to discuss the issue and a
resolution may be presented to the board for consideration in December.
After Prodding, Owens
Sponsors Immigration Bill
We welcome the news that Rep. Major Owens has co-sponsored HR.3650, a bill introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler earlier this year, that would allow same sex couples to stay together when one partner is not a U.S. citizen. We are pleased to report that all Democratic members of the Brooklyn delegation are now sponsors of this important measure.
But while we appreciate Rep. Owens' action, we are less pleased with his long journey to sponsorship. We publicly urged Owens to co-sponsor this bill in our May Lambda Line. When he appeared before our June endorsement meeting, he indicated in his written candidate questionnaire that he would be willing to sponsor this legislation.
Since mid-summer, an L.I.D. member who lives in Rep. Owens' district has been regularly contacting the Congressman's office regarding sponsorship of this bill, with no success. In early November, L.I.D. sent a strongly worded letter to Owens and he finally signed on. Yet as Lambda Line went to press, Owens' district office had still not informed the constituent, who has continued to call about the legislation, that the Congressman had, in fact, sponsored the bill -- a full 2 weeks after Owens became a sponsor!
Why is this scenario significant? Rep. Owen's constituent service
has been the subject of criticism in many quarters for quite some time and
was a central issue in the recent primary challenge he faced from
Councilmember Una Clarke. Many L.I.D. members expressed this concern
directly to Owens at our June endorsement meeting. But despite campaign
assurances of improvements, this very incident demonstrates that his
constituent service is still sorely lacking. It is time for Rep. Owen's
constituent service to match his outstanding voting record. In the view of
L.I.D., he ignores this major shortcoming at great political peril.
Schenley Murderer
Confesses
The long journey to justice in the 1982 murder of a gay Ditmas Park man has finally come to an end. Manny Gonzalez was sentenced on October 11 to 5-to-15 years for the slaying of Jan Schenley. Gonzalez confessed to the killing in late September as part of a plea agreement in which Gonzalez pleaded guilty to manslaughter and burglary. Unfortunately, Gonzalez will serve the sentence concurrently not consecutively with the 25-years-to-life sentence he received last November for the 1977 killing of police officer Ronald Stapleton.
Speaking at the sentencing hearing, Jan Schenley, the victim's sister, thanked former L.I.D. president Rodrick Dial for his support throughout the ordeal. L.I.D. began following the case during Dial's presidency and has been among the leading critics of its handling by police and the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.
We are relieved that the Schenley family finally has some closure to a
near two decade long nightmare and that some semblance of justice has come
to his killer.
L.I.D. Seeks Board Members
With L.I.D. elections scheduled for January and several board vacancies still remaining, we would like to invite anyone interested in joining the L.I.D. executive board to contact us. Women, people of color and individuals living outside the Brownstone Belt are particularly encouraged to step forward. But we welcome interest from anyone with a committment to forwarding the LBGT political movement in Brooklyn.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss joining the L.I.D.
Board, email us at LID@LIDBrooklyn.org or leave a message at 361-3322 and
someone will be in contact with you.
Mark Your Calendar
Speaking of L.I.D. Board Elections, mark your calendars for Monday,
January 27, 2001. That's the date of our January meeting when we'll be
electing officers as well as considering endorsement in the race for Public
Advocate. Watch for further details.
Voting Eligibility
With a hotly contested mayoral race and other citywide and city council races on tap for 2001, it seems a good time to reiterate eligibility rules for voting at L.I.D. endorsement meetings.
According to the L.I.D. Constitution, in order to vote at an endorsement meeting, an individual must be a dues paying member of L.I.D. New members who join less than 30 days prior to an endorsement meeting are not eligible to vote.
If a person's membership has lapsed within the 12 months prior to an endorsement meeting, the membership may be renewed at the door on the evening of the endorsement meeting and that person may vote. Members who live outside the borough of Brooklyn do not have voting rights in endorsement meetings. No proxy voting is allowed.
We look forward to a lively political year! Make sure your membership is current so you can vote.