October 5, 2007 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
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Rep. Tammy Baldwin is sworn into her fifth term by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 4, as her partner Lauren Azar holds the Bible.
going to accomplish what you want to do. You have to use it for your own goals."
As elected officials, hey were patriots who believed in our democracy and knew how to use the political process for the common good. To me and all those who followed them into office, they were courageous and generous role models.
I had the honor of attending the second such conference of openly gay and lesbian elected officials in the autumn of 1986, just months after my election to the Dane County, Wisconsin Board of Supervisors. I was 24 years old. There were a total of 14 elected officials in attendance, and combined with those openly gay and lesbian elected officials who were unable to attend, we figure that we numbered less than two dozen worldwide. As a young person seeking a life in public service and wanting to be honest about who I was, the people I met at those early conferences were a godsend. In time, I've been fortunate to take some of what they gave me and pass it on.
Let me tell you just one story. During my first termin Congress, I received a letter from an 18-year-old in a small town in southern Illinois-population 4,400. This young man had a passion for politics.
He wrote, "I was president of my graduating class, treasurer of the student council, and a senior board member on a local community service youth group... I was following my dreams," he told me, “until I realized that I am gay. At that point I gave up."
Surfing the Internet one day, this young man read an article about my election to Congress. He realized that one could be openly gay and live a life in politics. But, he went on to explain, that wasn't the real reason he was writing me.
In his letter to me, he wrote, "You not only saved my hopes and dreams, you saved my life. I have never told anyone this . . . I was going to give up, not only on my hopes and dreams, but on my life altogether.' This young man, whom I've since met, is now graduated from college, and involved in politics as an openly gay man.
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From that first group of pioneers back in the '80s has sprung the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute that each year assists hundreds of individuals to enter careers in politics, government, business and advocacy. There are more than 600 openly gay elected and appointed officials on five continents at the local, state, and federal levels.
Being out in our chosen fields, we not only offer hope to other members of the gay community, we offer a new perspective to members of the straight community, many of whom harbor those stereotypes I talked about earlier. Another benefit of coming out is that those of us who are out are perceived as being honest. . . of having integrity.
When I ran for the Wisconsin Assembly in 1992, I remember a man who approached me. I thought to myself at the time, "Here comes trouble." I steeled myself for some ugly words. But he came up to me, right in my face, and said, “Gosh, lady, you sure got guts. If you can be honest about that, you'll probably be honest about everything."
I got his vote, along with the votes of many others who probably don't-agree with me on every issue and aren't even comfortable with the idea of homosexuality-but honesty and integrity carry a lot of weight in an election, and in life.
We are ordinary people, living our lives, and trying as civil rights activist Dorothy Cotton said, to "fix what ain't right" in our society.
Cotton was a key organizer in the civil rights movement in Alabama in the 1960s. She had, and she inspired others to have, faith that, if they used the tools of our democracy, they could effect change; even when it was their government that was denying them their rights.
Using the tools of our democracy, the Freedom Fighters pushed forward the monumental Civil Rights Act of 1964. And using the tools of our democracy today, I am proud and gratified to have helped pass this year in the House, a hate crime bill that protects gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons from hate-based violence.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
We, in the gay rights movement, can learn from Dorothy Cotton and her comrades in the days of the segregated South; and we can learn from another role model of mine, former Wisconsin governor and senator Gaylord Nelson.
He was a man who sat in arguably the most powerful legislative body on earth, the U.S. Senate. He had the foresight to want to protect the environment, but he couldn't get his Senate colleagues to take his environmental legislation seriously. Nelson recognized that in order to enact environmental protections, he needed to engage the people first.
He founded Earth Day, which served to do two things. First, it inspired people, by the millions, to take direct action to improve their environment.
Second, it inspired people, by the millions, to take their citizenship and civic duty seriously and to urge their senators and House members to enact laws to protect our water, air, and our earth. After the first Earth Day in 1970, those changes began to come rapidly.
LGBT Americans have far to go to achieve full acceptance or full equality, but we have witnessed a sea change since my own days as a college student. That change is being driven not in the legislature, but in workplaces, schools, places of worship and communities.
All successful movements of change have much in common. They're not as spontaneous as they may appear. Each involves citizenship training, grassroots organizing, advocacy and, most important, a faith that each of us can make a difference and a faith that our democracy provides us with those tools.
And, yes, they take a long time . . . and sometimes we have to take a few steps back before we can again move forward.
But from the movements for civil rights, for suffrage, for trade unions, for environmental protections, we can learn the strategies and tactics, the patience and forbearance needed to achieve equal rights for LGBT Americans.
Above all, we can be sustained by the knowledge that, indeed, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Representing Wisconsin's Second Congressional District since 1999, Tammy Baldwin is the first out lesbian and the first openly gay non-incumbent ever elected to Congress.
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RED LIGHT: STOP & LISTEN!
Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 8:00 pm First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland 3630 Fairmount Boulevard
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