Here in San Francisco, we're gearing up for the
Annual Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, June 26th. In addition to voting for Grand Marshall of the Parade, the Pride Committee gets to vote on who will receive the "Pink Brick Award" -- an award designated to someone who has hurt the LGBT cause over the last year. Previous recipients have included Dr. Laura Schlessinger and George W. Bush.
This year, the award goes to Senator Dianne Feinstein for her "too far, too fast, too soon" comments made within less than 24 hours after George Bush's re-election.
This has aroused predictable fury from some in our local gay community, but I think that in this case, it may be appropriate.
It's true that Dianne Feinstein has an 85% voting record with the Human Rights Campaign. It's true that to put her in the same boat with George Bush and Dr. Laura is not only inaccurate, but also insulting. But it's too simple to say that the Pink Brick Award is about who is the biggest "enemy" of the LGBT community. It's about who has done or said the most in the last year to hurt our cause.
Feinstein's comments the day after the Election were particularly hurtful, even if they're really not that substantively different from what other Democrats have said. The critical difference is that she said it less than 24 hours after the election when the national media was eager to find a sound-bite that could encapsultate the conventional "spin" on the Election results.
We all know that the media is not liberal by any means. And for a Democrat to take the bait like that is simply unacceptable. Feinstein needs to understand that there will be consequences to doing something like that. November 2, 2004 was a long-awaited day that everyone (Democrat and Republican) felt that our world's future was at stake. To disparage the gay community so soon afterwards like that was despicable.
There's been lots of talk on Daily Kos about Joe Lieberman and how his rhetoric and agenda hurts the Democratic cause -- despite a moderate-to-liberal voting record that is really not too bad. Like Lieberman, Feinstein seems to go out of her way to alienate gays and other progressives whenever it suits her ambitions:
In [her 1990 campaign for governor], Feinstein went out of her way to distance herself from liberal positions--even running a television commercial in which she celebrated the fact that she was booed at the California Democratic Convention for her enthusiasm for the death penalty.
And her record with the gay community is, at best mixed, as Geofrey Kors, executive director of Equality California has pointed out:
"She has a mixed reputation," he said. "She has generally supported basic nondiscrimination laws, but she vetoed the San Francisco domestic partner legislation at the request of the archbishop. ... I think people are frustrated by her lack of movement over the last decade on these issues, for never making them a part of her agenda."
Giving out the Pink Brick Award also has an educational component to it all:
The year Schlessinger won because of her opposition to same-sex couples adopting children, the group organized a postcard campaign for parade goers to urge radio stations to stop carrying Dr. Laura's show.
The committee hasn't decided what kind of project would best-suit Feinstein's brick, but [Joey] Cain [(president of the SF Pride Committee)] suggested that a place to start would be for the senator to attend the parade on June 26.
"We are going to send an invitation to the senator to ride in the parade or speak from the stage, something she has never done," he said. "I'm hoping (the brick) sends a message to the senator, and I want to see it create more of a dialogue with her."
Yes, that's right. In her decades-long political career, Dianne Feinstein has never attended a Gay Pride Parade. Here in San Francisco, the Pride Parade is like Motherhood and Apple Pie. I mean, even SF Supervisor Tony Hall marches in the parade every year.
So Dianne Feinstein is no George Bush, but there's a difference. Giving her the Pink Brick Award may force her to accept some changes. I doubt it would be effective on a President who has said he doesn't listen to "focus groups."