David Arpin, Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund board member. Photo by John Conroy “We need a bench, a minor-league team of open GLBTs who are ready to move up the electoral ladder behind Annise.”— David Arpin Dr. Belinda C. Windham — "I realize how badly the church has battered the GLBT community, but to write us all off is counter-productive." The Right Spots PFLAG's Sue Null advocates activism with cards.

THIS ISSUE > FEATURES

In September, we featured advice from community activists and allies on how to defeat the antigay marriage amendment on the November 8 ballot. We now continue that conversation with more wise counsel--some looking beyond the elections to the future of our equal-rights movement: David Arpin, Dr. Belinda C. Windham, Phyllis Randolf Frye, and Sue Null. Plus "The Right Spots" -- Houstonians featured on national ads by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Bench Strength
By David Arpin
I know many of my friends are like me: addicted to immediate gratification.

      But as a community, we have got to start thinking about winning as a long-term proposition. Specifically, the GLBT community needs to have a broad-based voice at the legislative table. We need to have competent, open GLBT elected and appointed officials influencing the legislative and regulatory process. It is not adequate to rely on "friends" of our community, because these friends do not have the same skin in the game as we do.

And as a community, we must understand the calculus of supporting and electing our members to office. Everybody in town knows who Annise Parker is. And just about everybody should know that Annise is on track to become the our first openly lesbian mayor. But it is not as simple as that. We need a bench, a minor-league team of open GLBTs who are ready to move up the electoral ladder behind Annise. In this fall's city elections, our community can show its strength by standing behind Sue Lovell for City Council. We have to be able to show that our community can repeatedly get behind candidates and get them elected.

Finally, more of us need to become expert on how to be successful at getting elected. We have a tremendous resource in the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and its Victory Institute. The Victory Institute provides comprehensive training for open GLBTs who wish to run for office. Recent breakthrough officials, like Lupe Valdez, the first openly lesbian/gay sheriff of Dallas County, and Elena Guajardo, the first openly lesbian/gay City Council member in San Antonio, will attest to the fact that their training at the Victory Institute was a critical factor in their success. The Victory Fund provides financial, strategic, and technical support for open GLBT candidates.  

Idaho provides a perfect example of how this strategy works. Following last year's elections, Idaho was written off as a state whose legislature would place a constitutional amendment in front of its voters. The Idaho legislature, of course, is controlled by Republicans. But Nicole LeFavour had a different idea. Nicole received training at the Victory Institute and substantial funding and campaign help from the Victory Fund. In 2004, she was elected to the legislature from Boise and entered a body in which even the Democratic caucus was set to unanimously support an amendment. Through Nicole's efforts, the amendment legislation never even made it out of committee because it was overwhelmingly stopped on a bi-partisan basis.

That's how we win!

David Arpin serves on the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund board of directors and is a member of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus.

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The True Faith
By Dr. Belinda C. Windham
In my opinion, reframing the issue of gay marriage as a theological issue might be helpful. Perhaps one of the oldest theological concepts is that of imago dei, which means the image of God. This concept is introduced in the first book of Judeo-Christian scripture and is common among all three of the major religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.   Imago dei posits that God makes each of us in God's image. That means the Divine is evident in each of us, no matter our color, no matter our nationality, no matter our sex or sexuality, for that matter. It follows then that whenever we deny another person the full expression of their identity, we deny the image of God in which they were made, which is the same as slapping God in the face.   Full expression for a great many sexual beings includes marriage.

If the self-righteous fundamentalists want to use scripture as a bludgeon, then we may certainly speak to them in the same terms and win, I think. After all, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin once pointed out, the "religious right" has only seven verses in the entire Biblical canon upon which to draw in their hatred of gays. That means that the remaining 66 books belong to the rest of us.           

This may be hard for many of your readership to hear, but I have encountered the toughest resistance, with regards to my motives, from many in the GLBT community. I realize how badly the church has battered the GLBT community, but to write us all off is counter-productive
to our common cause. Thirty-eight ordained clergy persons robed and processed at the fourth annual Interfaith Gay Pride Worship Service in June. Some of us did this under threat of prosecution in the judicatories of our less-enlightened denominations. Those of us who come from social-justice oriented denominations have much to offer the GLBT community. We are committed to that end.  

Please, the next time you hear someone summarily dismiss all those who try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, gently remind them that many of us care very much about the injustices and oppression heaped upon the GLBT community, and are trying desperately to not only alleviate the resultant pain, but to rid the world of the source. Please gently remind them that Jesus Christ did not utter a single syllable about sexual orientation. All he preached was unconditional love.       

Windham is interim associate pastor, St. Philip Presbyterian Church and adjunct assistant professor of preaching at the Houston Graduate School of Theology.

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14 Words
By Phyllis Randolph Frye
We are missing it on the media sound bite and on the first two paragraphs of the written news story. Our details and nuances are getting lost because the media and our enemies have framed this as the "Gay Marriage Amendment."  

Until we stop being so busy that we cannot learn and consistently repeat the following 14 words, we will never win because we automatically cede the moral high ground to the bigots in their religious get-out-the-vote campaign, and because we do not alert those of our voters who mistakenly dismiss this vote as "not their issue."

Consistently, persistently and insistently we must name this fight--even when talking amongst ourselves for practice--as being the "who, what, where, when, and why" that it is. This is the "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersexed, and Unmarried Straight Couples Marriage and Divorce Constitutional Amendment."

Frye is a transgender activist and partner in the Nechman, Simoneaux & Frye law firm.

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Get Carded
By Sue Null
The most effective way to fight the discriminatory Texas Marriage Amendment is by person-to-person contact.

"Leave No Family Behind" cards, distributed by PFLAG Houston, are designed for supportive people to pass out to their neighbors, strangers, clerks, dog walkers, church members, whomever.   Accompany these cards with a brief conversation, emphasizing the immorality of amending the state constitution to deny equal civil rights to people.   Available at the Houston GLBT Community Center.

Sue Null is a member of the Houston chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

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The Right Spots
In October, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released seven powerful television commercials in opposition to the constitutional amendment on the ballot. The spots featured several Houstonians, including Anita and Charlotte Simmons, Adrain Bowie and Rev. Carolyn Mobley, and Mary Jo Dupre, who appears with her husband, PFLAG Houston president Ron Dupre. The ads can be viewed at www.thetaskforce.org.


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