No More LGBT Support for the Democratic Party

GLN permalink 8-26-2010

After four long years of Democratic rule of both congressional houses and going on two years Democratic control of the White House, LGBT people are angered by the lack of action to end the U.S. government's discrimination against our community.

It is no longer mainly "the big bad Republicans," but a government dominated by the Democratic Party which is:

* Denying us equal employment protections
* Exiling bi-national couples who can't get rights to stay here
* Using bigoted standards to discharge us from the military
* Arguing in court to uphold the "Defense of Marriage Act"
* Continuing Bush's "faith-based" funding of sectarian projects with federal dollars
* Cutting international anti-AIDS funding
* Freezing domestic spending while spreading America's wars and taking military spending to record levels

Our movement's dependence upon and subservience to the Democratic Party has proven to be a dead end. We urgently need to win a wave of pro-LGBT rights legislation, but nearly two years of Democratic rule of two branches of the federal government show that only a truly independent movement can win the sweeping changes we need and demand.

In response to the failure of the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress to fulfill their many promises, we must inflict pain. That means demonstrations against the main party in power, the Democrats. That means boycotting them and the Republicans in the fall elections.

To those who say that this will only throw the fall elections to the far right, we say that civil rights progress is in no way dependent upon which major party is in power.

Some of the most powerful civil rights progress for women, African Americans and others happened under the far-right Nixon administration, for example. And ironically, it's been Republican-appointed judges from Massachusetts to California who've proven much more likely to support equal marriage rights than Democrats. As ACT-UP in the early 1990s proved against the first President Bush, street activism which genuflects to neither major party is the key means to winning civil rights and saving lives.

The Gay Liberation Network is planning a Chicago action in the second half of September aimed at the politicians that verbally cater to us most, but don’t actually deliver anything.

We've heard enough empty promises from "pro-gay" politicians. If we are going to win our rights, it will be despite the opposition of those who forthrightly oppose us, and despite the foot-dragging and covert opposition of those who claim to support us. Our goal is to convince others in the LGBT community to realize that we have more options – the existing political choices do not meet our needs. We will have to win our rights ourselves, in the streets and outside the voting booth.

We invite others to join us in developing coordinated protests in other cities.

If you would like to plan an action in your city, please contact Gay Liberation Network at LGBTliberation@aol.com or call Andy Thayer at 773-209-1187 or Brent Holman-Gomez at 312-543-7552.

Gay Liberation Network
www.GayLiberation.net