[Vision2020] Gays (Unfortunately) Need an Army To Get Elected

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (June 18, 2006) Lewiston Tribune with a special thanks to Tom
Henderson.

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T.H. - Gays (unfortunately) need an army to get elected

Tom Henderson

If you are gay and run for public office, you need a small army of
consultants and assorted shrapnel catchers at your side.

But hey, at least those people are available.

When Cal Anderson became the first openly gay candidate to win a seat in the
Washington Legislature, he walked that lonesome valley by himself.

If he ran these days, he would have all sorts of help from advisers across
the land -- all more than eager to help a gay man win an election.

State Rep. Ed Murray, openly gay himself, call this progress.

Maybe so, but it is a sad sort of progress. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria
Cantwell don't need strategists to help them overcome the "handicap" of
being women.

Even in Idaho -- for all its redneck reputation -- Moses Alexander didn't
need a phalanx of spin doctors in 1914 to become the first Jewish governor
in American history. And cultural, ethnic and religious diversity were much
bigger liabilities in public life then than they are today.

It's absurd that sexual orientation remains so much an obstacle to public
service that candidates need paid professional help to get around it.

"It's not a minor thing," says Murray, a Seattle Democrat now running for
Anderson's former Senate seat. "I still think it's not an easy thing to be
gay or lesbian and run for elected office in the best of circumstances, even
in the best of districts."

Still, openly gay candidates could be something of a fad.

"We're at a place and time where voters are very receptive to openly gay
candidates," says Robin Brand of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a gay
political organization.

Voting for a gay candidate because he's gay makes as much sense as voting
against him for the same reason. Will we ever reach the point where
candidates are evaluated strictly on their merits?

Maybe not. That would require too much reading.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people."

- Unknown 
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