When I read Charles Kaiser’s response to (what I called in this post) “a raft of e-mails faulting him for failing to talk to a single gay Republican in his Out magazine article, ‘Washington’s Gay War,'” I knew the organization had scored a major success.
Their call to action (both on the web and in an e-mail blast to members) generated enough correspondence to get that magazine to take notice and respond.
For as long as I have been involved in Log Cabin, particularly when I was a club president in the late 1990s, I faulted the national office for not doing enough to challenge the anti-Republican bias of the gay media.
Many gays may well see gay Republicans as self-hating or otherwise “traitors to the cause” because our media offers slanted coverage of us, highlighting the most hypocritical, relying on stereotypes drawn from books, plays or their own imagination. Gay publications (and even some in the MSM) rarely offer accurate pictures of real live gay conservatives.
If we want our fellow gays to have an accurate picture of us, we need to do something to change the way the media covers us. Kaiser’s article was not the first biased piece, but just another example of shoddy reporting of gay Republicans.
In a welcome change from the past, Log Cabin’s national office refused to take this one lying down. They took action, pointing out the flaws in the article, asking members to contact the magazine. And they got results.
I daresay that the next time Out magazine commissions a piece on gay Republicans, it will turn to someone more willing to interview gay Republicans, listen to us and quote us in his article.
I’m delighted at how swiftly Log Cabin responded to this “hit piece.” They deserve major kudos for their efforts. This is a welcome change. It shows how much we can accomplish when we speak up. And dare to make waves.
Now on to the Advocate.
What I don’t understand is this. Believe me, I know that the only way to make change is from within a political party and not as an outsider. While I was a registered Republican (until 2006, now I am unenrolled), I found the doors open to me regarding my Republican leges and it made my lobbying for LGBT Rights in Massachusetts a bit easier.
But what I don’t get is the shuffling and equivocation that comes with the territory of being of a group of people that is hated or used by the GOP for political purposes. In Massachusetts alone, back when Patrick Guerriero was the LCR President, I can remember a photo of Mitt Romney on the LCR website taken at an award ceremony for our ex-Governor Weld. This was in 2004 way into our fight to save marriage equality/we had marriage equality via the Goodridge Decision. Romney was in his most vile anti-gay phase and it took multiple phone calls from me to LCR National and to Guerriero directly until the photo was taken down.
And I can tell you this also. There was a major negotiation between Romney and LCR or at least Guerriero to accept the “compromise amendment” which would have taken away the marriages we had and given us Civil Unions instead. I suspect, LCR was attempting to negotiate a middle ground instead of an all or nothing strategy, the latter proving to have been successful and Massachusetts remaining the only state with full equality–no thanks to LCR at the time.
Those are just two of the examples that I am personally aware of that makes me question the LCR.
Funny…I was President during the time when the amendment was being discussed and work closely with Patrick and the national office. Never did we accept a compromise for an amendment that would strip us of the marriage rights. What was worked on was a strategy to kill one really bad amendment to put up a weaker amendment that could be subsequently killed. There were parliamentary steps that needed to be taken which if you look at Massachusetts now ended up working quite well. The reality is that change comes slowly but if you think that for one minute we’re not making a huge difference you’ve missed the last four years…where are the social issues. Let’s work to motivate gay people to give to the GOP on the scale the crazy bible beaters do and you’ll start to see some change. The best way to get what you want in politics is to have a strong case and a big wallet.
Well then, I must be imagining the meeting at my house in Manchester-by-the-Sea when in the presence of my Republican Senator and State Rep., Senator Saltonstall, Chad and Ann Gifford and other leaders in my town, and when LGBT leaders including myself were trying to diffuse this “compromise amendment” that was before us in the State House, Patrick G. came in (late) and announced to all of us that the best stategy for all and one that Romney would accept is civil unions.
What that did to my district was to put me (as an activist) in a very very tough position with my leges and gave both my Senator and Rep one additional excuse to not understand what “real” equality is.
Ken,
The point that I am trying to make here, and you know that I come from the same basic political background and stand for many of the same things that LCR’s do, is that we as gay people need speak out 24/7 for our equality. When my KnowThyNeighbor.org got the scoop and leaked GOP State Committee emails to the Boston Globe which proved that the State Committee was collecting signatures for the Massachusetts Anti-Same Sex Marriage Petition, providing volunteers, using state committee time and funds, and all done without a vote of the committee members, where was the Mass Chapter of LCR to condemn this?
On the National Level and more recently LCR seems to be much more critical of the anti-gay rhetoric and attacks from within the GOP, I will give you that. But we need more of it and it needs to be pro-active. If LCR takes the leadership on this, then maybe the Democrat LGBT will learn something from it. So when Hillary Clinton says, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was a ‘good transition policy'” and “I want to repeal just the 3rd part of DOMA” then maybe the Dems will call her out on it.
How fun. Lets see pick on people because they are Americans who are queer and Dems… Thats not nice.
Pick on Americans who are queer and belong to the LCR’s that’s not nice either.
I thought Tom Lang was fighting for gay marriage not Mormon marriage. What else would you call 2 married gay men living in a thruple relationship with 18 y/o boys.