It seems that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t do anything to please Geoff Kors, Executive Director of Equality California, an organization seeking “to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Californians.” Although the Governor has signed a number of pro-gay bills and made clear his support for the state’s landmark domestic partnership program, Kors seems more concerned about that pesky little (R) after the governor’s name.
As BoiFromTroy has shown, under Kors’ leadership, Equality California has is not much more than a group of “Democrat Hacks.” Kors shows his partisan animosity yet again in a release faulting the Golden State GOP for hiring a social conservative lobbyist to promote the governor to this constiuency.
While Kors calls the appointment of Ben Lopez, who has lobbied for Lou Sheldon’s “Traditional Values Coalition,” an “affront, not just to the LGBT community, but to all fair-minded Californians who oppose the manipulative,” he doesn’t point to any statements (or policies) by the governor or the state GOP to show how they amounts (as Kors claim) to “breach of their promise to our community.” Both the governor and state GOP party Chair Duf Sundheim have touted the state GOP’s inclusion.
It seems to be that by bringing on Lopez, the party is being inclusive of social conservatives. His appointment is hardly a breach of any promise.
Kors’ anger, however, seems to be misplaced and seems to be more a part of his general animosity toward Republicans. It’s one thing to hire a lobbyist who has worked for an anti-gay outfit. It’s quite another to put forward anti-gay policies. As Governor of the Golden State, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a solid record of tolerance and understanding on gay issues. He has reached out to the gay community, included gay men and lesbians on his team and in his Administration and signed a great variety of bills which benefit gay and lesbian Californians.
Instead of getting his panties all in a bundle over this one appointment, Kors should look at Schwarzenegger’s overall record. And if he were not so intolerant of Republicans, he might acknowledge that Repubilcan’s accomplishments.
But, then again, it’s just par for the course that leaders for gay rights’ organizations to judge a politician less by his actual record than by his political affiliation. And to these narrow-minded leftists, the letter R after a politician’s name killeth.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
UPDATE (08-23): BoifromTroy notes that the California GOP has fired Lopez. LIke me, he wonders what “Equality California was so upset about in the first place.“:
The State party didn’t hire Lopez because it and the Governor believed in all of the nefarious things which TVC [Traditional Values Coalition] promotes. Rather, Victory ‘06 had to hire someone like Lopez to “shore up the base” precisely because Governor Schwarzenegger does not promote such an agenda!
“Although the Governor has said a number of pro-gay bills and made”
I think that might be “has signed a number of pro-gay…”
Absolutely, GPW.
As I pointed out, after BfT reported it, Equality California did not endorse a single one of the five non-incumbent openly gay candidates running for state offices in California. Indeed, they endorsed the opponent of four of the five.
Why?
Because those five candidates are also, more importantly, openly Republican.
I guess the EQCA puppets are more concerned with dancing for their Dem masters than they are with gay political advancement.
[Comment deleted.]
I did not vote for the man, but I do remember being at the Gay Pride parade in Arcata California (pop 15K) near Eureka soon after Arnold was elected and a representative from some gay group had come to give us a message from the Governor. Through the snickers and the sneers this young man passed on to us a message of encouragement, inclusion and support. At the time I thought how significant this was because Arnold had just been elected and he certainly was not going to be making any points with many of the very conservative people who had supported him. I thought he was actually putting his backside on the line! And he was giving us gay men and women a message of support. Unfortunately, the crowd of about 1100 people were mostly unimpressed and negative. Too bad, I thought, in this heavily liberal town (Humboldt State is there) Arnold simply can’t win for losing.
#2 But you can’t be Republican and authentically gay so Equality did the right thing by opposing those so called gays.
How many people can see the Santorum ad on this blog? Is there something pro-gay about his actual record that we should know about or is it just his political affiliation that gets his face plastered on a “gay” blog?
Thanks, Patrick. Since fixed.
It’s never surprising to see how willingly or extensively the GayLeft has subverted our agenda for partisan Democrat interests. I’m gald that you, Dan, this blog and others like BfT help keep that story forward in minds of independent or nonaligned gays.
Like breaking out the hispanic or asian vote from the minority base, this battle to win back the hearts and open the minds of our fellow gays will be a long slog but worth it in the end.
Thanks for another insightful, credible post and thoughtful reference.
How many gay blogs, sean, carried ads for homobigot John Kerry, who said that gays should be stripped of rights for a condition with which they were born because his religion said so?
The inherent style of TFV campaigns, regardless of the actual issue are the basically fear-based, they are out to get your children (whomever “they” are) kind of message.
There would seem to be to be a basic incompatibility with that style of fear-based tactics and Governor Arnold’s more upbeat, positive style of campaigning. If thats the kind of tactics that the guy was suggesting, then perhaps they simply realized that they hired the wrong person for the job. He wasn’t a good fit for the Governors administration.
Your point in #11, Patrick, makes a lot of sense.
#10. Kerry, Clinton, Gore…Kerry, Clinton, Gore. Does Kerry support–and actively support–a Constitutional Amendment? But, I digress… You were going to say something about Clinton and Gore now?
Vote Santorum in 2006!!
I`m amazed your so suprized about this. In England the typical gay man`s sterotype of lesbians is that they are extremly violent .Iam a twenty year veteran of the gay scene and have lost count of the number of women I have knowen stabed or beaten in bar fights between lesbians. Back in the mid `80`s regular battles between Hastings and Eastbourne women involving bar stalls, bottles and knives would take place at weekends.I youst to be friendly with a woman from New Castle who`s nick name was “carving knife” and who was run out of town after taking anouther woman`s face off with a beer bottle. I have seen them fight straight men too. I remember a particularly nasty little brawl bettween three of them and a pimp I witnised early one morning in a celler club. A friend of mine who served in the R.A.F. said lesbians fighting made the fights he had seen in barracks look gentlmanly. Latley this kined of violence seems to be tailling off. Younger women seem less interested in fighting but even in the last year or so I heard of a woman being barred from a gay pub after she accidently dropped a machite out of her coat.I am not acussing lesbian culture as a whole of being violent but there is deffinatly a violent eliment amongst the old fashond pre-femanist lesbians. Things must be very different in the States or your life a little shelterd for you not to be aware of it.
No on prop 8 was never a website to promote or oppose the Democratic party. Why don’t straight people get it? The issue is equality. If Gov. Schwarzenegger had been proactive and introduced legislation to support same sex marriage vs. taking the expedient avenue of coming late in the game and minimally endorsing the no on prop 8 cause, he could have been our hero. If it wasn’t for his wife we all know where his position would be.
We just want equality. We don’t want to force your churches to grant us marriage we don’t want to change your minds about us, we want the law to treat us with respect and equality. Where in the world civilized persons feel that the majority should have the right to repress or marginalize a group of persons for their natural state is a complete mastery to me. We want the same rights, responsibilities and limitations for that matter that come with the legal status of marriage. This includes survivors benefits, dependent status on IRS responsibilities, child rearing, divorce, and the status that tells others, don’t come on to me, I am married. These issues have all been decided in law and practice for centuries. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. With civil unions none of these issues have a history. Heterosexuals, please, just get past your own bigotry and unsubstantiated fears. Give us equality. We are your children, siblings, parents, and friends. We don’t want to take anything from you or the miracle of reproduction. We just want to celebrate the person that we are.
I’m too old to care much whether I can marry, but I want the LGBT youth of America to practice dating with the idea that a life long relationship is preferred to solitude and anonymous sex. The lack of this status for your children to have an increased suicide rate. Get it, YOUR children, heterosexuals create homosexual children.