New York City
Gay Rights Issues Take a Back Seat – and That’s OK
War, the economy and health care matter most, gay and lesbian rights groups say
ekg232@nyu.eduLesbian couple Tara Baker, 48 and China Clarke, 31 sat on bar stools recently at Ruby Fruit, a lesbian bar in New York’s West Village. They have been together for four years, bought a house together in Albany, New York, and share the bills, house cleaning responsibilities, and homework time with Clark’s nine-year-old daughter. But, as gay and lesbian New Yorkers know all too well, Baker and Clark will not share a legal marriage anytime soon.
The issue of gay marriage is not even on the radar of the presidential candidates. Some have acknowledged that “there is too much red tape to get gay marriage any time soon,” as Baker said.
With both Democratic candidates offering virtually the same rights and support for gay Americans, the priorities available to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community have largely been left out of the spotlight. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support civil unions that would grant the same legal rights, benefits and privileges that heterosexual couples receive to gay married couples. They have also pledged to work to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and to champion a federal anti-discrimination law that would protect the equal rights of lesbians and gay men.
The Republican candidates’ negative attitudes toward gay marriage – key talking points in the 2004 election – have barely been mentioned this election season, while hot issues like immigration, the Iraq war, the economy and health care have taken precedence.
“Of course we’d love to see some more pro-gay talk from candidates, but we know how to deal without that already,” Clark said.
Other members of the LGBT community point out that other issues are at least as important now.
“We would like to have the same rights as hetero couples,” said Laura Randall, 38, of Queens. “Things like property when your spouse dies, sharing income, stuff like that. But I don’t think gay issues are a hot button this time around. I think the war and economy are more important, to be honest, and the mortgage crisis.”
Issues like health coverage, social security and the war are also among the most important ones for 60-year-olds Mary Donlon and Barbara Wood, who have been together for 24 years, and are fast approaching retirement.
“We’ve lived long enough to know what is really important and what is worth fighting and dying for: health coverage, justice, the economy,” Donlon said.
The Stonewall Democratic Club, a gay political group that has endorsed Clinton, notes that no candidate has championed an anti-discrimination law that would also protect transgender individuals, an important gay community issue that has been largely ignored in the campaign. Nor has Clinton been grilled nearly as much about her husband’s actions on behalf of the gay community during his first term as she has been about their joint failure to reform the U.S. health care system. Gay rights advocates criticized Bill Clinton for promising more to the gay community than he delivered. After pledging to allow openly gay men and women to participate in the armed forces, he settled for a lesser “don’t ask don’t tell” policy that Clinton now says she would appeal.
“It’s a little frustrating that our issues are not being discussed, but the emphasis this year is getting someone who we think will be better on our issues in the White House,” said Matthew Carlin, president of Stonewall. “It is like, we understand why they are not discussing issues important to the gay community, but we wouldn’t object to them discussing them either.”
The New York Times reported that lesbians and gay men make up roughly 5 to 13 percent of the Democratic vote in New York, and that the gay community is far more likely to be interested in politics than mainstream voters, because of how intimately politics affects their lives.
A popular gay news website, gaycitynews.com, endorsed Obama, citing his “courage in standing up against the rush to war in Iraq.” The site commended his approach to ending the war, and accused Clinton of dirty politics, but barely mentioned gay political issues. But most Democratic clubs in New York, such as the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, The Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens, and the Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats, have endorsed Clinton.
“A lot of people said that Clinton had the most experience, has done a lot for the LGBT community in New York, and had the best chance of winning against a Republican,” said Carlin.
One thing heard across the board from LGBT Democrats is that they are desperate for someone who will beat Republican candidate John McCain.
“As a black woman I am totally torn,” Clarke said. “ I appreciate the way Hillary thinks. She thinks differently than a man, but at the same time I’d like to see an African-American in office. “But if Obama was a white man, I might have to vote for him, because I am so scared of a Republican getting into office.”
The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in Manhattan is the home of the birth of the modern gay rights movement.
Photo by Elizabeth Giegerich