GLBT trust in the Dems, Sorry, I am not Convinced

[Ioo]

I posted this over at the DailyKOS. Mixed results. I am sure I will get them here as well.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/7/22545/8535/734/670504

I want to write a diary about the democrats and the GLBT community, I am a little nervous, because this is some very raw thoughts and fears.

And I pray I am wrong, and if I am, I will eat my words.

If you will allow me, I would like to first say a few words about the movement as a whole.

This is not another attempt by some leftist gay to draw parallels between the struggles of the African-American communities and the Gay Community, there is no comparison. Our struggles both seek a very similar end; the right to live where we want, to express our love, to work without fear, to celebrate our cultures, but the road to get there is very different, and the hills the Gay and Lesbian community have to clime look small compared to the mountains scaled by our black neighbors. The term “civil rights” may have been born in the struggles of African-Americans, but what those brave people did on the streets and churches across the south was take the baton of equality passed to them by likes of Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony who called it “Suffrage”, and they took it from the Mormons (yep, at one point they were the target) and the un-landed white men, and they took it from the founders who told the King of Great Britain to stick it. Civil Rights, the rights given by the Civil government, are something that Americans have been fighting for from the very first days. In fact, the road that the Gay community is currently on, while somewhat bleak at times, is made better by the hard work of those who came before us, those that left behind the map for others to follow.

The fact that in this great nation there are still Americans having to climb towards the unalienable rights laid out by our forefathers, still carrying the baton of equality, shows the hollowness of this shining beacon on the hill we call the United States of America. The rights of Gays and Lesbians are only the next step in a relay race to the freedoms we were all promised over 230 years ago.

GLBT people right now in the US are hurting. Our rights, our civil rights, are being "put up for a vote" in state after state. The rights of the minority are debated on and dispensed by the majority, and as history has shown us, the minority rarely ends up better off than before.

The Democrats

I will admit that I am very suspect that the Democrats are the friends they claim to be. Sure, we are welcome with open arms into the tent, and we are even allowed to mingle with the rest of the guests, but when we ask for something, our requests are more often than not meet with lip service and a very uncomfortable smile.

Political Capitol

There is a substance in Washington called political capitol. How much someone gets is a complicated formula that involves vote counts, time, money, friends, location, and willingness to commit murder (not to do it, but the willingness to do it). It is deposited into your account by the news media, press secretaries, lobbyists, and sometimes the people. Every action you perform while in Washington has a price attached to it, from getting a vote on a key bill to the floor, to getting a patio seat on a Friday night at Redsage, so spend your political capitol wisely.

If you do something great, you get more of this toxic substance to use, if you mess yourself in public, you can quickly see your balance of political capitol vanish in a heartbeat, just ask Ted Stephens. Political Capitol is a use it or lose it substance, and over time, if you do not swing it around and hit people with it, it dwindles into thin air.

The Democrats Political Capitol

For those that are living under a rock, or who were smart enough to turn off their television to escape the disaster of the last 8 years, the democrats are flush with political capitol. In fact on my way to work the other day traffic was at a standstill on I-66 because there was a convoy of trucks hauling in the political capitol the Democrats have. Obama alone had 2 full trains of the stuff leaving Chicago and heading to Washington. Democratic Senators all got a massive deposit of political capitol, the question for the Gay and Lesbian Community will be on the receiving end of the spending?

The Democratic Track-Record

For years the Democrats have said publicly, depending on poll numbers, that the Gay community deserves “rights”, and yet we have moved very little from 15 years ago. Barak Obama himself would include or exclude the “Gay or Straight” line of his stump speech depending on him being up or down in the polls. When they tightened up after the Republican Convention, we were out, then it looked like victory was all but assured, we were back in.

The democrats, for a short time had it all in Washington, and equality for the gay and lesbian community moved very little. In fact, when we had a Democrat sitting in the White House, we took a few steps back. Bill Clinton allowed the Republicans to have their way with our community. Some defenders out there will say that Bill Clinton had to sign the Defense of Marriage Act. That is not true; he was just not willing to spend any political capitol on the issue. He had chooses; he could have VETO’ed it, and let the Republican lead Congress attempt an override (they would not have been able to). He could have even taken the cheap way out, the one that spent the least political capitol, and pocket VETO’ed it by not acting on it at all, but he had chosen neither of the options that showed a commitment to defending the rights of all Americans.

Then there is the whole issue of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Again, this was the great compromise of the 1990’s. Except that it was not. All DADT did was make the lives of Gay servicemen and women harder, because now I (I was in the Air Force at the time) had no real guidance. I was still just as scared, and the punishment for expressing my love was the same as before. Nothing really changed, it only had a name. Democratic President William Jefferson Clinton was an accessory to the Majority takes away the rights of a Minority.

So given the track record of the Democratic parties’ unwillingness to spend any political capitol beyond very cheap words, and only when the polling looks good, what am I to expect of the new democratic majorities that I helped put into place in this year. What should I expect of President-Elect Obama?

So the Question is, as it has been in the past, are the Democrats willing to spend any of that political capitol on the issue of equality for all Americans, even the gay ones?

My Realistic Expectations of the next 2 years.

On a national level, nothing... Nancy Pelosi will say what the democrats have said for the last 15 years, “Now is not the time, we have to worry about getting reelected in 2010.” If they retain the congress after the 2010 election, we will hear about 2012, 2014, 2016 and so on... I am sure it will also be accompanied with an uncomfortable smile.

More locally, I hope that the Supreme Court of the State of California overturn Prop 8, with the addition of Massachusetts opening up the equality of marriage to anyone who can make the trip. Connecticut has also opened up the equality of marriage to anyone willing to overlook the fact that the state is the birthplace of George W. Bush. The gay cat is out of the bag, like it or not, gays and lesbians are nothing more than a plane ride away from legal recognitions of their relationship. All over America Article IV of the US Constitution is about to be put to the test.

“Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.”

What does it mean? It means that the state I live in, West Virginia, does not have the option on whether or not it will recognize my marriage, it has no choose. It means that while a state may not allow gays to marry, but it has to recognize my California marriage.

As I said, the GLBT is hurting, and we need everyone’s help to force the progression of the relay race to equality.

ALL PROGRESSIVE AMERICANS need to work to pressure the congress to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. With this act overturned, the act would open the door to allowing Gay and Lesbian Americans to get real protections of their relationships; even in the state they live in does not. We need to force congress to take the sometimes hard, and sometime politically expensive steps to give all Americans the right to keep their home when there partner dies, to visit that near dead partner in the hospital, to get benefits for them at work, and so much more.

[IndianaGreen]

1. The only true friends of LGBTs are the Socialists and the Anarchists

Democrats won't repeal DOMA anymore than they will Taft-Hartley.

[readmoreoften]

2. Agreed. Rank and file Dem voters are our friends and some congresspeople. But not the party itself.

If you want a party that supports you, you pretty much won't find one in the Democratic Party. Only the leftist parties support us as a matter of platform.

[Creideiki]

3. Which only feeds the idea that we're "out of the mainstream"

I was in the military, too, and was ready to fight for its existence. The injury that took me out of OCS was an incredible relief. I don't lie well, and DADT has at its heart a major contradiction: serve with honor and integrity, but lie about who you are. Being kicked out for medical reasons helped resolve that contradiction allowing me to retain my inherent sense of integrity.