8
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 21, 1997
SPEAK OUT
Nice speech, but spare us the lovefest
by Mubarak S. Dahir
On November 8, Bill Clinton became the first president ever to publicly address a gay and lesbian civil rights group when he spoke at a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign.
His appearance there has been trumpeted as a landmark by gay and lesbian leaders. But while listening to a radio broadcast of his speech, I noticed something extremely disturbing, something that poses a real threat to the political progress of gay and lesbian civil rights.
It started from the very beginning of Clinton's speech, and continued unmercifully throughout it: He was constantly interrupted during his talk. The interrup-
tions were so frequent, they almost made it difficult for him to get through the speech.
Most of those interruptions were not hecklers in the crowd, or skeptics questioning Clinton's many missteps to date in his complicated relationship with the gay and lesbian community. No, those interruptions were nothing but sheer applause and ovations that bordered on blind idol worship.
At one point, thundering applause silenced the president for minutes after he delivered nothing more than the stock political opener, "I'm delighted to be here." And that symbolizes my concern about the unchecked euphoria the gay and lesbian audience that night-and much of the gay and lesbian community around the country-indulged in over the mere fact that Clinton spoke to a bunch of gay and lesbian people assembled together in the same
room.
Clinton could have been reading from the phone book, and still he would have
received deafening applause from a gay and lesbian community seduced by the presence of a president and the desire to be part of mainstream politics. They seem to have forgotten that delivering a speech and delivering tangible civil rights progress are two quite different things.
Of course, Clinton, being the superb politician he is, delivered a better-thanaverage speech that touched on many im-
Clinton's address doesn't deserve the kind of hysterical, goo-goo eyed fawning that our leaders have given it.
portant themes involving gay and lesbian civil rights. Some of his words even deserved applause.
As do some of his actions to date: It is true that under Clinton, federal money for AIDS has increased; he has appointed some openly gay and lesbian people to office; he was the first president to court the gay and lesbian vote as a candidate back in 1987; and he supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, that would outlaw job discrimination based on sexual orientation.
But Clinton is hardly a purist when it comes to standing up for gay and lesbian civil rights. When he realized how badly he bungled his promise to end discrimination against gays and lesbians in the military, he forever backed away from it. He has routinely ignored the recommendations of his own national advisory council
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on AIDS; and, in the most disappointing move of all-one which underscores that his support of gays and lesbians is not based on a true sense of our equality-he signed the hateful Defense of Marriage Act, and has stated he believes marriage is valid only for a man and a woman.
My point here is not to demonize the president. The truth is that he has a mixed record on gay and lesbian issues. When he takes a step in favor of them, he should be encouraged and commended, and indeed, his speech to the Human Rights Campaign deserves a nod of approval.
But it does not deserve the kind of hysterical, goo-goo eyed fawning that our gay and lesbian leaders have accorded it.
This same kind of dangerously naive optimism followed Clinton's first election to the White House, and it was not long before the gay and lesbian community had a bitter awakening. That should have taught us an important lesson, not only about the limitations of Bill Clinton, but also about how blind support of even a somewhat sympathetic politician can, in the long run, hurt rather than help the advancement of gay and lesbian civil rights. Bill Clinton epitomizes the arrogant belief, present particularly among Democrats, that we as gay and lesbian people have no political alternative to them. Therefore, it is easy for them to believe that even if they don't produce much political gain for us, we still support them.
That could only have been reinforced on November 8, when a bunch of supposed gay and lesbian leaders slapped down $250 per couple simply to cheer wildly at Clinton's most mundane pronouncements.
♡
Mubarak S. Dahir is a syndicated columnist living in Philadelphia.
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