People are challenging John McCain on the qualifications of his VP selection, Sarah Palin - and he's none too happy about it. Her problems have been well established in the media - and aren't even fully fleshed out yet. We've only seen a glimpse of her potential for Republican self destruction, with the Troopergate bombshell waiting in the wings. Her few interviews have been a disaster, in which she's sounded even less intelligent than Dan Quayle (the word trainwreck comes to mind). However, the one that all glbt people should listen to is here:
Sarah Palin thinks being gay is a matter of choice. Few would expect more from her, but her position is one that's very dangerous for all glbt people. If she were to win this election and be spouting this kind of message, be trying to enforce it in government, it would continue to set back our movement for years.
I've looked far and wide to find an old article I read a year or two ago, but the intertubes weren't as helpful as I'd like. Suffice it to say, those who view homosexuality as a choice don't support the expansion of civil rights for glbt people by overwhelming numbers. People who view being gay as a sexual orientation, something that's just a part of us and can't be changed, support policies like marriage equality and ENDA by overwhelming numbers. So, this notion of choice is key to winning the civil rights battle: it's unlikely that we can convince a super majority of Americans to support glbt civil rights until people realize that being gay is as ingrained in someone as the color of their eyes. It can be masked, it can be hidden - but it can't be changed.
Now, why do I bring up the Log Cabins and HRC? Well, the answer should be obvious, at least in the case of the Log Cabins. By supporting Republicans of any kind, they're propping people like Palin up. A Republican would vote to approve whoever a McCain/Palin administration would nominate for the courts. Even a "moderate" Republican will do so. That same moderate Republican will vote to place fringe-right politicians as the head of committees, controlling the fate of thousands of bills - many of them that will effect us. In fact, glbt people are starting to call for the Log Cabins to disband. As long as Log Cabins ever support a Republican when Republicans prop the Sarah Palins of the world up to national heights, it's an organization that deserves no support and no members.
The Human Rights Campaign, the supposed leader in advocating for GLBT rights on the national level, has unfortunately been a Log Cabin supporter. Per several sources, along with this article I found using google, they've donated at least $10,000 to the Log Cabin Republicans, who have endorsed the McCain/Palin ticket, along with other GLBT Republican organizations. They've donated nothing to the Stonewall Democrats. HRC's supported candidates like Joe Lieberman, who was thrown out of the party in a primary, and Susan Collins, a Republican. In Lieberman's case, not only has he been an embarrassment since being reelected as an Independent, but he also won a close election over a candidate who was pro marriage equality (Lieberman's never been in favor of marriage equality). HRC's money and support may have helped Lieberman's opponent, Ned Lamont, tip the scale and win the General as he did in the primary.
However, at least Lieberman still caucuses with the Democrats (for now, anyway). Susan Collins would have some of the most fringe-right politicians chair committees on DC. Those Chairs have a great say in which bills see the light of day - and which ones don't. More importantly, while these 'moderate' Republicans may be able to squeeze in decent voting records on matters civil rights, they can't be counted on when the votes will be close. The Republicans are traditionally very good at keeping their caucus together. They'll let the moderates vote against the party when they already have enough votes to accomplish their goals, but not when it'll make a difference. So, people can throw away Susan Collins's 78% 2004 HRC ranking, especially when the challenger is even more pro-equality, scoring a 100% in the same year. Why does HRC go out of its way to support conservative candidates when there are other candidates running against them who have much stronger records on glbt rights?
There's a lot of ground the GLBT movement has to cover to achieve our goals. First thing's first, we've got to get our own house in order. We can't have organizations like the Log Cabins be anything but a farce. We most certainly can't have our standard-bearing organizations supporting Log Cabins. If HRC is going to donate to Log Cabins, it's time for our money to go to other national GLBT organizations, like the Stonewall Democrats. After all, any help that goes to Log Cabins, through HRC or otherwise, is going toward helping people like Sarah Freaking Palin inch closer to national office. It's money and support going toward continuing this Republican Reign of Terror that, even to this day, allows people in most states to be fired or denied housing simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Enough.
-Ryan