Pride Guide 2005 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
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Standing proud, in today's political climate
Electing LGBT candidates to office is one of the most powerful things we can do
by Eric Resnick
How does one celebrate pride in today's political climate? Simple. You come out swinging.
Like every movement for justice before us, we hit a bump. We encountered huge setbacks with close to a dozen anti-marriage amendments and increased influence of the anti-gay industry on the federal government.
Our fellow Ohioans told us where we stand in this once great state, too, as the overwhelming passage of Issue 1 proved that we live in a state that would rather turn existing laws protecting families on their head than to treat our families with respect.
Equality? In our dreams! It would be easy to reason that we are running out of avenues to fight back, until it becomes clear how powerful a salvo our community is firing into the next election day on November 8, when highly qualified gay and lesbian candidates can be
Openly gay candidates are not being baited like we used to be, either.
When I ran, it was still considered acceptable for opponents to make sexual orientation a defining issue.
A fourth candidate entered my race with printed literature designed to bring out the worst in voters.
It began with, "I recently married a great and wonderful girl..." and segued to “The problem we have with Eric is not his sexual orientation. The fact that he is proud and open about his homosexuality is just fine."
Perhaps for the first
time in Ohio, all the
LGBT candidates on the November ballot have
a good chance of
winning their races.
taking their places in city councils around the
state.
This is not a record year in terms of the number of openly gay candidates on the ballot in Ohio. That was 2001, when seven ran. But what distinguishes 2005 from 2001 is their electability, and hopefully, our commitment to their efforts.
Electability can be defined as how much support, financial and otherwise, candidates have, how much they can count on our community for that support, and how the general public accepts their sexual orientation.
A lot has changed in the ten years since I ran for Congress in Ohio's 16th District.
Back then, it was such a novelty to be an openly gay candidate that most voters didn't learn much else about our qualifications.
Every newspaper article written about gay candidates in those days focused on the fact that the candidate was gay, first and foremost, and about what we offered voters second or third. We were not judged by the content of our character or the merit of our ideas back then as much as by the gender of our partners.
Sure, Mary Jo Hudson, Columbus' first openly lesbian city council member, still shakes her head in disbelief that the Columbus Dispatch still includes that in every news article she appears in. But it's no longer in the first paragraph, and they manage to get around to talking about her economic development initiatives, too.
Louis Escobar, the openly gay president of Toledo's city council, hasn't worried about homo-focused coverage in a long while.
That's irreversible progress, and we shouldn't miss it as we come off the ropes for the next round.
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tutional amendments.
Though there are no doubt whispers like that about our candidates now, even the least cosmopolitan voters would reject that sort of official campaign pronouncement as outof-bounds if it happened today.
That's the kind of progress that comes from more of us than ever before being out and proud, and noth-
ing the antigay industry can take away, not even with consti-
With experience, the LGBT community learned to take better care of its candidates, too, which, in turn, helps the non-LGBT voters to respect them.
In my race, people worried that if they showed up as a contributor to my campaign, that they would be outed.
In contrast, Hudson was the top money raiser of all city council candidates this year. Clearly, no one worried about equating campaign contributions with sexual orientation.
LGBT candidates stand on the shoulders of the entire LGBT community, and we stand on theirs.
Their candidacies are made more legitimate by our dollars, our volunteer efforts, and by how the world sees us living honorably and proudly as LGBT people.
Our community is elevated as our brothers and sisters take their place at the tables of power and influence, and proving that LGBT people are worthy of being there.
Our candidates take the fight to Phil Burress and his venomous ilk every day they are out on the hustings winning the hearts and minds of voters by being who they are.
No one gets handed power. It must be taken.
The 1969 Stonewall riots we commemorate each Pride were about empowerment. So are the 2005 city council campaigns of Mary Jo Hudson in Columbus, Joe Santiago in Cleveland, Thomas Meinecke in Toledo, Nickie Antonio in Lakewood, and so was Tristan Hand's race in Warren.
Perhaps for the first time in Ohio, all the LGBT candidates on the November ballot have a good chance of winning their races. As
DIVERSE Universe
a class they are better trained and better financed than ever before, and they have the broadest support bases starting out.
These candidates can win, and once elected, they can govern. We need to see to it that they do win all of them.
There's no better way for the Ohio LGBT community and our allies to say to those who tried to hurt us last election, “We're here. We're queer. And we're not going to back down."
The Open Door
Pride is about power.
...a coffeehouse for all people
Third Sunday of Every Month
First Grace UCC, 350 S. Portage Path, Akron
(South Portage Path at West Exchange Street)
Doors Open at 6:00, and performers can warm up between 6:00-6:30
Entertainment, Food, Friends, Free!
Interested performers
should contact: lhunteo.rr.com.
Presented by First Grace Un and The Pride Center, Akron
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