 
LGBT lemmings for Dean
Howard Dean largely has the gay community to thank for the success of his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a recent article in The Washington Post. Reports the Post:
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's record-setting fundraising first took off in large part because of an outpouring of support from the gay community.
With just one exception, every fundraiser Dean attended outside Vermont in 2002 was organized by gay men and lesbians, as were more than half the events in the first quarter of 2003, according to Dean advisers.
"The early foundation of Governor Dean's presidential campaign -- both in fundraising and organization -- was built by the support of the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community around the country," said Dean finance director Stephanie Schriock.
The gay community "was the first to recognize Dean's strength of character after his leadership on Vermont's civil union legislation, and because of that, they were the first to open up their homes for events and ask their friends and colleagues to give money to this endeavor," she added.
This early backing provided a foundation for Dean to expand his core support to include voters opposed to the Iraq war, angry at President Bush, embittered by the outcome of the 2000 election and discontented with what they saw as a Democratic Party establishment without backbone.
All nine Democratic presidential candidates support most issues of importance to gay organizations, but Dean has one major advantage: On April 26, 2000, he signed the nation's first law granting same-sex couples the right to enter legally sanctioned civil unions that provide many of the protections of traditional marriage.
The gay community has become a powerful force in the Democratic Party, reflecting the growing importance of socially and culturally liberal groups in providing both votes and money, as business and trade associations shift increasingly toward the Republican Party. Key Democratic fundraisers estimate that the gay community provides at least 10 percent of the money flowing to the party and its nominees....
In 2001 and early 2002, well before he announced his candidacy, Dean capitalized on his signing of the civil unions law and his hero status in the gay community, speaking to branches of the Human Rights Campaign and other organizations across the county.
Some of the largest contributions to the Fund for a Healthy America, the political action committee Dean set up in 2001 to finance the exploration of a presidential campaign, were from prominent leaders in the gay community.... The Dean campaign's first presidential fundraiser was June 22, 2002, on New York's Fire Island, a summer resort community popular among gays....
The gay community's support has paid off not only in cash -- helping Dean set an all-time Democratic record of at least $40 million raised through the end of last year -- but also in a decisive lead among gay voters, according to two surveys.... Two independent surveys of gay voters last summer showed Dean holding a substantial lead over his Democratic opponents, a 22-percentage-point lead in one, and a 33-point lead in the other....
So how has Dean rewarded those hard-working gay men and lesbians (and bisexuals and transgendereds) whose time, energy and money have helped get him where he is? Does he support same-sex marriage?
Um, no.
Is he up front about that?
Uh, no, because he has "his hero status in the gay community" to uphold. (Note that I use "gay" as an umbrella term for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people. I don't use the politically correct "LGBT" because it is awkward and sounds like a kind of sandwich.)
During yesterday's Democratic debate on National Public Radio, NPR's moderator, Neal Conan, asked the six of the nine Democratic hopefuls who participated in the debate a simple question: "The issue of gay marriage: We're going to ask for a yes or no from each of you. Do you think marriage is only between a man and a woman?"
In this order, the six candidates answered:
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich: "No. I support gay marriage."
Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman: "Yes. I think that marriage is only between a man and a woman."
Former ambassador and former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun: "No. People should be able to marry who they want to spend their lives with and who they want to form a family with."
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry: "I have personally believed that, but I think the law of equal protection requires to afford rights to people. Whether you call it marriage or not is up for grabs, but you have to have the rights."
Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt: "I'm not for gay marriage. I think the answer here is civil unions. Some states, like Howard's, have done that. And if states decide to do that, because this is state question, I think the federal government ought to conform the laws..."
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean: "We chose not to do gay marriage in our state. But I think that's up to the individual states. And oddly enough, you know who has a position? Dick Cheney."
(For the transcript of the the full discussion of same-sex marriage from yesterday's NPR debate -- including an interesting discussion of whether civil unions for same-sex couples in lieu of marriage constitutes an unconstitutional situation of "separate but equal" -- click here.)
Note that Kucinich, Lieberman, Braun and Gephardt give clear answers to the question. Kerry is a bit slippery, but at least he tells us, "I have personally believed" that marriage is only between a man and a woman, but that he supports equal rights for same-sex couples, whether we call it marriage or not.
But do we know where Howard Dean stands? No. He doesn't say "I," but says "we": "We chose not to do gay marriage in our state. But I think that's up to the individual states." So does Dean believe that it's OK for states to reject even civil unions (which are, let's face it, just watered-down, namby-pamby versions of marriage meant to be more palatable to the homophobes)? Dean doesn't explain, but immediately goes on to change the subject to Dick Cheney: "And oddly enough, you know who has a position? Dick Cheney." (???)
Dean's answer was, in my opinion, purposefully most unhelpful, an attempt to play both sides of the fence: He doesn't want to lose the support of the gay community, which, as the Washington Post article points out, has been instrumental to his success. And neither does he want to lose votes in November 2004 by supporting same-sex marriage. (A recent New York Times/CBS News poll showed that 55 percent of Americans support a constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to a man and a woman.)
Howard wants it all.
An even greater irony of the gay community's support of Dean -- greater than the irony of the fact that he doesn't support gay marriage -- is that, at best, the gay community supports him based upon a serious misconception about his record as governor of Vermont.
The gay community widely believes that as governor of Vermont, Dean just spontaneously, courageously up and pushed through the state legislature a civil unions bill that was all his idea.
Dean hasn't said or done anything, to my knowledge, to correct that misconception. In fact, he has fostered it -- as did his finance director when she told the Washington Post that the gay community "was the first to recognize Dean's strength of character after his leadership on Vermont's civil union legislation." Slate online magazine reported in August that Dean said the following in a speech on Feb. 21, 2003:
Six months before my last re-election [in 2000] I signed a bill into law that made Vermont the first state in American to guarantee equal rights to every person under the law.… That bill was called the civil unions bill. And it said that marriage is between a man and a woman, but same-sex couples are entitled to the exact same legal rights as I have -- hospital visitation, insurance, and inheritance rights.… This bill was at about 40 percent in the polls when I signed it. Sixty percent were against it, six months before the election. I never got a chance to ask myself whether signing it was a good idea or not because I knew that if I were willing to sell out the rights of a whole group of human beings because it might be politically inconvenient for a future office I might run for, then I had wasted my time in public service. I looked in the mirror, and I knew that if my political career were about myself, then I would not have signed that bill. But my political career has never been about getting elected.… My political career is about change."
Again:
"I never got a chance to ask myself whether signing it was a good idea or not because I knew that if I were willing to sell out the rights of a whole group of human beings because it might be politically inconvenient for a future office I might run for, then I had wasted my time in public service. I looked in the mirror, and I knew that if my political career were about myself, then I would not have signed that bill. But my political career has never been about getting elected.… My political career is about change."
Brings a tear to the eye, doesn't it? But what was Howard leaving out about Vermont's civil unions bill? Slate reports:
Reality check: Dean had no choice but to accept such a bill. In December 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that Vermont was "constitutionally required to extend to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law." The court instructed the legislature to grant gays "inclusion within the marriage laws themselves or a parallel 'domestic partnership' or some equivalent statutory alternative."
Given that choice, Dean took the more conservative option. According to the Associated Press, Vermont's lieutenant governor and House speaker supported gay marriage, but Dean didn't. [Note, however, that during yesterday's NPR debate, Dean stated, "We chose not to do gay marriage in our state."] Gay marriage "makes me uncomfortable, the same as anybody else," Dean said at the time. He did encourage the legislature to pass a civil unions bill. But the alternative he averted was legalizing gay marriage, not preventing gay domestic partnerships.
Many supporters of the bill criticized Dean for signing it "in the closet," in private and without a ceremony.
The reason Dean looks bold on this issue is that conservatives attacked him for supporting and signing the bill. In 2000, his Republican opponent accused him of threatening and bribing lawmakers to vote for the bill. Dean got so many threats that he had to wear a bulletproof vest. And the issue did sharply reduce his margin of victory.
How many gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people know that Howard Dean opposes same-sex marriage? How many fewer know the truth about how Vermont's civil unions law came to be?
It's foolhardy to support a candidate for president based upon just one issue, but I imagine that millions within the gay community support Howard Dean primarily or solely based upon their belief that he is a true champion of gay rights.
It's even more foolhardy, however, to support a candidate for president based upon just one issue when the candidate is just a fucking poser on that issue.
And that's what Howard Dean is: poser extraordinaire.
My gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered brothers and sisters, you've been had.
9:46:12 PM 
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