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LeftOut
By
Daryl Moore
Proud
in the Parade, Proud in the Voting Booth
Our community talks a lot about “gay pride.”
Once a year, we have a big parade. We drop a disco ball
in the Montrose. And we march in unity on lower Westheimer
to demonstrate that we’re gay or lesbian and we’re
proud of it.
Then we return to our jobs, our families, and our lives,
and we don’t think much about it until next year
when we celebrate another collective moment of gay pride.
In between those celebrations, however, many of us operate
in a state of self-loathing on one level or another.
Before you declare that you’re not just another
self-hating homosexual and decide to quit reading, ask
yourself this question: “Do I support candidates
who I know do not support gay and lesbian issues?”
If the answer is “yes,” ask yourself why.
Try to justify how you can support someone who doesn’t
support you. If you can come up with a good reason,
then trot on out to the pride parade and declare how
“proud” you are of yourself and your sexuality.
If you can’t justify your actions, it’s because
you shouldn’t be able to. There is no valid reason
for a gay or lesbian person to support someone who is
not right on gay and lesbian issues. The only reason
is self-hatred.
And there are plenty of self-hating gays and lesbians
who run around, tell everyone how proud they are to
be gay, and then go and vote for someone who isn’t
proud at all to have their gay and lesbian support.
Alas, let’s take the presumptive Republican nominee
for president, George W. Bush. You recall how Dubya
said he would never knowingly appoint an openly gay
or lesbian person to a cabinet position. And, you recall
how he said he opposes adoption of children by gays
and lesbians.
In spite of those comments, there will be a lot of self-proclaimed
“proud” gays and lesbians who will line up
to vote for Dubya. They will pronounce their support
for him and express their optimism that he isn’t
a pawn of the religious right. They will then justify
their support for him by explaining that they are not
single-issue voters.
They will emote about how they care about more than
just gay and lesbian issues. They care about the environment.
They care about the economy. They care about crime.
On these issues, they say they agree with Dubya. That’s
why they’re supporting him for president. And no—thank
you very much—that does not make them self-hating.
But it does. And the reason is simple. These same folks
who support Dubya in spite of his stance on gay and
lesbian issues would never support him if he had the
same stance on gender and race issues. That makes them
self-hating. Indeed, imagine that Dubya had declared
at the beginning of his campaign that he would never
appoint a woman or a black person to a cabinet position
if elected president. Would we even be having this debate?
Of course not.
We have almost universally accepted that any candidate
who refuses to consider someone for a position simply
because of their race or gender is not fit to be president.
In other words, racial and gender equality are so important
to us they can turn us into single-issue voters.
If that’s so, then why aren’t we single-issue
voters when it comes to equality for gays and lesbians?
Why are we willing to stand up politically for women
and people of color when we’re not willing to do
the same for ourselves?
It’s simple. We’re not yet proud enough to
proclaim that gay and lesbian equality is so important
that it should be a litmus test for candidates who ask
for our support.
Until it is, we will continue to have parades. And we
will continue to disagree about whether to vote for
Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives.
But what we should not disagree about is that no one
deserves our support unless they can guarantee us a
place at the table. Not if we’re truly proud.
Writing
from the liberal end of the spectrum, Houston attorney
Daryl Moore has a general practice and is board certified
in civil appellate law. He can be reached at DarylMoore@outsmartmagazine.com.
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