The Party's Over

The few, if any, people who read what I write on these blogs, may remember that I lean left of center and tend to support Democrats, since I regard the Republicans as a party who have sold their souls to the devils on the religious right and are now controlled by the bigotries of that political fringe, particularly in regards to gay rights.

So I would hope that it would come as a surprise that I encourage anyone who gives a damn about whether gay people are treated the same as straight people to not vote for Democrats. Or Republicans. Neither party is committed in a significant way to helping the gay community.

That said, I think it's OK to donate to individual candidates who specifically come out in support of issues of importance to the gay community. And those candidates, while mostly coming from the Democratic party, may also include an occasional Republican who is willing to stand aside from the lock-step marching of his or her party and do the right thing for the queers.

That's the policy being adopted by Garden State Equality, New Jersey's largest gay rights group, which has suspended donations to the organizations after Democratic lawmakers failed to pass a gay marriage bill.

According to a Feb. 9 article by Shruti Mathur Desai of the Camden, N.J., Courier-Post, Garden State Equality has asked its 65,000 members not to contribute to political parties after Democratic lawmakers in that state, did not vote to legalize gay marriage. Garden State Equality will continue to donate to individual candidates and other nonparty organizations that further equality for the LGBT community, however.

The organization's leaders expected lawmakers would legalize gay marriage last month. But they saw support erode after Republican Chris Christie was elected in November.

Fourteen senators voted in favor of the bill that went to state Senate on Jan. 7, 20 voted against, and five, of whom two were absent, did not vote, including Sens. Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and James Beach, D-Camden.

Barbra Casbar Siperstein, President of the NJ Stonewall Democrats, said she and other LGBT groups were disappointed in the senators that voted no, "or, perhaps more of a slap in the face was those who didn't vote, and some of those certainly were in South Jersey," she said.

Siperstein echoed Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, saying the rejection of the bill was a slap in the face.

"The Democratic Party recognizes the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender community as its second-most-loyal constituency," Siperstein said. But out of about 100 voting members of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, not a single member is an out LGBT member, Siperstein said.

Siperstein, who once served as vice chair for Garden State Equality, said the Stonewall Democrats support the activities of the Democratic party, but mainly focus their giving on individual politicians.

This makes sense to me --- Garden State Equality's members donated to the Democrats presumably to get some positive progress toward gay issues, such as same-sex marriage. And the Democrats, specifically a couple of cowards who skipped the vote, didn't come through. If Garden State Equality continues to support the Democrats as a party, the Dems will just continue to take them for granted. I don't see that Garden State Equality has any other choice, in terms of letting the Democrats know that the party screwed them over, and not in a nice way.

New Jersey was top-ranked in the United States in 2009, tied with California, Iowa and Vermont, in a survey by eQualityGiving.com. It is one of two states that provides paid family leave for same-sex couples.

I think at this point, the Democrats as a national party need to be told that they need to clean up their act, in terms of gay people, and take sanctions against party members whose failure to support gay rights is costing the party gay dollars.

I don't have a lot of disposable income myself, but I do have a big mouth, which I'm willing to use for traditional nice gay activities and also for the purpose of scolding and working against politicians who fuck gay people, and not in a nice way. And those politicians can be Democrats or Republicans.

The next time the Democrats send you a global e-mail or a fund-raising letter, write them back and tell them it's time for them to DO something for the gays besides just asking for our money. And the same thing goes for the Republicans.

Snort.