Today Representatives Donna Edwards and Jared Polis spoke at Netroots Nation. Since they'll be recruiting candidates for the House next cycle, and since they're both progressives, I wanted to talk to them about the importance of LGBT issues in the next election. I did not manage to find Rep Polis, but I did get a chance to speak to Rep Edwards for quite awhile. I have mixed feelings on the results of our discussion, but I was happy to get the chance to explain my point of view.
First of all, it seems obvious but I want to reiterate: both of these representatives are on our side on these issues. They're not hostile or combative and they're more supportive of LGBTs than a lot of other people. So, I know that whatever they do as far as candidate recruitment and whatever criticisms I have, they really are LGBT rights supporters in a big way.
I told her my story:
I just wanted to explain to the reps doing the recruiting that I am a poor, disabled gay male who lives in the south in an extremely isolated and conservative area. It's such a dangerous place for gays and other minorities that it's impossible to ever feel safe there. I told her about the kid who was killed near me, just for being gay. That happened right around the time the federal marriage amendment stuff was going on. It's been statistically proven that anytime there are antigay measures on ballots anywhere, hate crimes go up. So when we live in an area with no support, no help from family or friends, and we face complete rejection from everyone with no possibility of finding a network of people who care, that's bad enough.
Adding to that the fact that so many of us are poor, and so many of those of us who are poor live in the worst areas. We truly have nothing, no outreach, no medical support, nothing. I was discussing the topic with someone from Equal Justice USA - her focus in the discussion was on mental health issues for LGBT youth. Basically, there is none. In states where it exists, it is often the first thing to go (she mentioned areas of California where this is happening right now.) So what do we do?
We're all in this completely bizarre, volatile situation even without outside pressure from the government. Our families and our communities often don't need help disparaging us. But they seem to get it anyway from all quarters. And when you inject this hate, this homophobia, this cruelty into an area in which LGBT youth are completely helpless, what the hell do you think happens? We get hurt, we get killed, by our "friends", even. And who do we go to when these attacks happen? Oftentimes the police are the most homophobic and bigoted of all. Our justice system doesn't help and even defense lawyers who are on our side are totally inadequate and not well-versed in our issues.
These things, this kind of speech and this kind of legislation and this kind of politicization of our community exacerbates all our problems. We're already struggling with class, gender, orientation, race and other issues. Then they come into the areas with the most helpless victims and they attack. They destroy our rights. And even when they're just saying terrible things about us, it creates a dangerous situation for us. Every time. So this kind of thing needs to stop, and one of the ways we can stop it is to promote LGBT-friendly candidates in a whole lot of districts, and to put LGBT rights on any checklist that might exist for purposes of recruitment of candidates.
This would be a big deal. It would go far to not only end most of the hate speech and replace it with supportive speech, but these representatives in these districts would then vote for and support measures which make our most vulnerable people feel safer and be safer. We would have people fighting for employment, fighting to end bullying, fighting to fund AIDS research, fighting to make it so we can feel safe in our worst areas.
On top of that, it would create a national incentive to do better. Including LGBT rights would move the conversation forward on our so-called "pony" issues that we need. And really, if we had representatives working to do something about our worst issues, and make us safer, we could actually become more invested in our "pony" issues like gay marriage. Think about it: if a gay person is living at home with his parents and it's a conservative area and he's closeted, the dude isn't going on the internet to research gay marriage issues and how he can help. He's not getting on the phone with his representatives to push for LGBT advocacy. He doesn't have the motivation to get behind DOMA repeal. He's trying to survive. Trying to remain low key and get through the dangerous times in which he is living. You want more votes and calls and support for these measures? Make our situation better.
People in areas like mine are not attending Pride events or rallies for any causes on LGBT rights or anything like that. Just recently, in fact, they started advertising Pride events here. Last year. We are not out in numbers because we have all the motivation to keep ourselves safe and remain closeted.
Do I think that the sole answer is to include LGBT issues and LGBT discussions on a checklist for candidates? Obviously not. This isn't magic. Nothing is going to happen overnight. But right now we have nothing, and having this would be a lot better than nothing.
So I told Rep Edwards a lot of this story, and a lot of my idea. I think it's a good one. I see the flaws - obviously they cannot feasibly run a candidate who supports every single item on our list of things we want. Obviously they're not going to announce a pro-gay marriage candidate in my district, AL-01 (Jo Bonner) anytime soon. I understand that. But what I'm talking about is more than that. We don't want ponies or people to just start supporting every little thing we want. But I do think the literal life-or-death things are sort of important. Living is fun and I'd personally like to stay alive, you know. I'm sure some other people feel the same way.
I truly don't think we can move forward without our government moving forward with us. They're just too powerful and too much of an institution for everyone to just work outside that system. There are some community-level things we can do to raise awareness on LGBT issues, but there are just some unreachable places when a few people are working individually to change minds. We need to create real support everywhere we can and eliminate the hate speech and antigay bills and grandstanding speeches on the evils of homosexuality. We don't need these things coming from our reps. And we don't need lack of support from our Democratic reps.
They say silence is complicity, and it's true. Even worse than the Republicans spewing hate speech are the Democrats who just stand by and watch because they can't politically support gays. Their political homophobia cannot be overcome with pleas for support and representation. They don't take a stand against this hate. They don't counter it because to counter it would get the gay all over them and that's just uncomfortable.
So we can do better and we must.
I was very sad to receive a boilerplate answer after telling my story ("A majority of Democrats supported DADT repeal and a majority of Democrats want DOMA repeal, but no, it won't be on a checklist") but I guess I wasn't surprised. It's difficult to change entrenched interests, and to make politicians do something they perceive as scary and threatening to their career.
So we continue to fight on. We do what we have to do to survive.