Articles From Our September, 2000 Newsletter

Human rights can catch on, and on and on
By David T. Z. Mindich

BURLINGTON, Vermont -- This morning, I found my wife of 10 years packing her valise. "What are you doing," I asked. "I'm leaving you, David," she told me. "Is it because Vermont's civil union law, guaranteeing full benefits for committed same-sex partners, makes our traditional marriage completely meaningless?" I asked. "Precisely," she said.
  Vermont's civil union law took effect July 1, and within days there is plenty of evidence that the bill's more strident opponents were correct in their dire predictions. They said that traditional marriages would dissolve, and they were right: Since the bill passed, nearly half of Vermont's traditional marriages have been annulled. Despite that my own marriage was solid, built on shared values, experiences and goals, it was completely destabilized by the radical thought that same-sex partners should enjoy benefits such as shared insurance coverage, inheritance rights and equal access to interior design. Marriage was not the only thing to fall apart here in Vermont. Organized religion has disappeared as well. The argument of the bill's opponents was a complex hermeneutic interpretation of God's will in Genesis: "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
   Some of us tried, in vain, to argue that God made plenty of gay people, too. And that the bill does not promote sexual orientation but basic human rights. But to that, they in turn argued, cleverly, "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
   In hindsight, we know they were right. Organized religion, like marriage, has been thoroughly destabilized. Throughout the Green Mountain state, churches, synagogues and mosques have fallen into disrepair. Or they have become gay discos. Part of the opposition focused on the fact that gays and lesbians cannot have children the same way heterosexuals can. "Marriage is about children," said one opponent of the bill. While they never had a bill opposing childless marriage, I'm sure they meant to and it just slipped their minds. Of course many gay and lesbian couples are also great parents. But that just destabilizes heterosexual parenthood. We in support of civil union thought that the new law would simply enable gay partners to have a legal acknowledgment and protection of their social and spiritual commitments. But we should have learned from the past. In Selma, Ala., in 1965, African-Americans won the right to vote in Alabama and then that right spread to other states. We saw then how infectious human rights can be. Let us beware: Human rights often lead to more human rights. And then where would we be?

David T. Z. Mindich is the chair of the Journalism Department of St.Michael's College in Colchester, Vt.,.

A great day for Missouri's glbt community.

   In the six weeks leading up to election day, 75 volunteers put in 325 hours to support PREP's endorsed candidates. We sent postcards to 7500 households and made 4700 phone calls the weekend before the election. This was an unprecedented volunteer mobilization for us, and PREP thanks all of you who helped.
   Of the ten races in which the PREP PAC endorsed a candidate, seven of them won; and two of the candidates won big in statewide races.
   Joe Maxwell was endorsed for Lieutenant Governor by both the PREP PAC and the Four Freedoms Democratic Club in Kansas City. He won with 56% of the vote in a three-way race.
   Nancy Farmer was endorsed for State Treasurer by the PREP PAC and the Four Freedoms Democratic Club. She won a three-way race with 47% of the vote. Five other endorsed candidates won their local races. Thanks again to everyone who volunteered in the last six weeks, and let's move on to November and have another day of victories on November 7!

Email prepstl@prepstl.org 
Web www.prepstl.org

It's Always Wrong, 
Except When It's Their Daughter

Politics: Moralizers like the Cheneys have made intolerance the stuff of ambition. They can't turn it off at their convenience.

By ROBERT SCHEER 

   The news that the Republican vice presidential candidate has a lesbian daughter confirms the obvious: Homosexuals are made that way, a gift of God or nature, and not the result of liberal permissive parenting or the policies of the Democratic Party. 
   Mary Cheney is the product of a stern conservative upbringing under the tutelage of a mother whose public work has centered on proclaiming a standard of family values for the nation. In the main, her daughter would seem an exemplar of those values--a hard-working, law-abiding, former corporate spokeswoman for Coors. Mary Cheney is not a rebellious black sheep but rather a loyal supporter of her father's political ambitions who has said she will delay plans for graduate school in order to campaign for the Republican ticket. Her example makes a hash of the denigration of homosexuality as a capricious choice by willful, immoral hedonists who are being indulged by a society that has abandoned traditional values. 
   Once again, we have the living proof that "they" are us, including a Republican convention delegate, Brian Bennett, who was a key aide to the gay-bashing Robert K. Dornan, the former congressman, and Pete Williams, who was Dick Cheney's press spokesman during Cheney's days in the Pentagon. When Williams' homosexuality was revealed in the media several years ago, Cheney said: "I have operated on the basis, over the years, with respect to my personal staff, that I don't ask them about their private lives. As long as they perform their professional responsibilities in a responsible manner, their private lives are their business." 
   Why then did he later blast Bill Clinton for ever-so-tentatively attempting to apply that standard of fairness to gays in the military? How can Cheney run on a party platform that denies his own personal experience with at least two thoroughly honorable homosexuals--his trusted aide and his loving daughter? The platform approved by the same convention that nominated Mary Cheney's father would bar her from military service, deny her civil rights protection from discrimination and prevent any legal recognition of the five-year relationship she has had with her partner. 
   Implicit in that platform is a denial of Mary Cheney's fundamental human right to define herself, because it assumes that being gay means lacking the will to behave responsibly. That is why, when Dick Cheney was secretary of Defense, he supported a policy of court-martialing even the most battle-scarred hero of the military if he or she happened to be homosexual. Does he think that his own daughter cannot be trusted to be with heterosexual women in a barracks without molesting them? Do the Cheneys not believe that their daughter is capable of a sustained loving relationship with her partner, Heather Poe, who has been welcomed into their home? 
   Alan Simpson, the ultraconservative former Wyoming senator, met the lesbian couple at the Cheneys' home and, according to the Rocky Mountain News, said that "the family not only accepts Poe as their daughter's partner, but also embraces her as a member, and outsiders shouldn't judge by what they don't see." He added, "This is just one of those things the media lands on for a headline." Nope, not for a headline, but for a consistent statement of policy. 
   If the Cheneys can accept daughter Mary's companion as a member of the family, why would they not accept a similar situation in another family? Further, why would they deny their daughter, or anyone else's daughter or son, the right to legally codify that partnership by accepting the obligations normally associated with marriage? Why has it remained for the Democratic Party to affirm that gays are entitled to full human rights? 
   The reason is that the Republicans have been drawn like moths to the flame of religious zealotry, thinking they could bask in its glow without ever getting burnt. Which works just fine, until one of your own falls victim to the forces of intolerance. 
   At the Republican convention, Lynne Cheney bristled with anger when ABC's Cokie Roberts asked her about her daughter being gay. The mother's mood was understandably protective; it should have been none of the reporter's business. But unfortunately, the moralizers, Lynne Cheney prominent among them, have made intolerance the stuff of political ambition, and it can't be easily turned off to suit their convenience. 
   The proper answer to the snooping Roberts should have been: "Yes, and it's about time we had more wonderful people who happen to be gay, like my daughter, in the Republican Party."

Robert Scheer Is a Contributing Editor to The Times 

SAVE THE DATE: SEPTEMBER 13th
The Hate Hurts Families National Call-In to the Capitol Day

We encourage PFLAGers throughout the country to participate in The Hate Hurts Families National Call-In to the Capitol Day on Wednesday, September 13th.
   PFLAG is pleased to partner with COLAGE and Family Pride to send a strong message to the U.S. House of Representatives that hate hurts families. Imagine being one of thousands calling the Capitol on September 13 with the important message to protect our GLBT loved ones.
   Encourage everyone in your chapter to pick up the phone on September 13th to deliver this message to your Representative at their Washington, DC office.

   "I urge Representative______________ to support the passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1082). Hate hurts families, and this important piece of legislation will help to protect my______________(transgendered sister, bisexual son, lesbian friends). Please send the message to Representative __________________ that I want her/him to co-sponsor HCPA, H.R. 1082."

Please spread the word -- announce it at your next chapter meeting, put it in your newsletter or on your website, send an email alert or activate your phone tree to all chapter members, your friends and family. You can reach your Representative through the House switchboard a 202/225-3121, or look up her/his direct line at www.house.gov.

PFLAG SUPPORTS REAL FAMILY VALUES