Joe Brummer

There is almost a sweet irony that Prop 8, the anti-gay marriage amendment, passed in California at the same time the film Milk was released. One wonders what Harvey Milk would have said about the national protests involving tens of thousands of people in almost every major city. Would he agree that the young GLBT folks watching were getting the hope he so wanted them to have?

2009 seems to be the realization of so many of the dreams of Harvey Milk. He believed we needed gays and lesbians in public office. He ran for San Francisco City Supervisor representing the Castro district because he believed he could prevent police harassment of gays. He was the first openly gay public official elected to office. This all came at a time when bars were still raided and coming out of the closet meant kissing your job goodbye. It was the time when Anita Bryant campaigned for Prop 6 to bar gay and lesbian teachers from working in the schools. We have come along way since Harvey Milk stood on the steps of San Francisco City Hall and declared, “I am here to recruit you.”

The Victory Fund reports that we have an estimated 420 openly gay men and women who took Harvey Milk’s challenge of getting into public office to represent GLBT interests. We also have a president who supports us enough to appoint GLBT individuals to a list of public offices. David Medina, a gay man and board member for the Human Rights Campaign, has been asked to head the First Lady’s Chief of Staff. The post of Director of the Office of Management and Administration has also been filled with a gay man, Brad Kiley. Lesbian Nancy Sutley has been appointed to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Dave Noble will be the President’s Liaison to NASA. The Chair of the US Import/Export Bank will also likely be a gay man, Fred Botchberg. The Former Victory Fund Executive Director, Brian Bond, has been named Deputy Director of the White House Office of the Public Liaison. These are only to name a few of the appointments that should inspire you.

A recent study published by the group “Freedom to Marry” showed that legislators who support marriage equality are more likely to gain re-election. The report, available on the group’s website states, “In the 17 different state legislatures that have voted on an anti-gay constitutional amendment since 2005, none of the 670 legislators who voted against discrimination lost because of their stand when they next faced voters. The states involved were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.” This should send a message to legislators in Rhode Island to wake up and support equality.

While we still have the “Anita Bryants” of the world screaming and kicking that we are all out to destroy the universe, this may finally be the year where we pass the Matthew Shepard Act, ENDA, and put an end to the witch hunts of DADT despite their failure to see our humanness. This may finally be the administration that embraces fairness and stands up the anti-gay conservatives rather than kissing up.