Is The Democratic Party Serious About Fighting For LGBT Equality?

The Democratic Party prides itself on being a big tent so the answer is both yes and no. Mainstream FDR progressives are very serious about equality-- like the Pennsylvania state Senator, DaylinLeach, in the video above. Confused conservatives who, for whatever reason, stumbled into the wrong party are not. When I was growing up, my grandfather, a dedicated Socialist, told me to never trust the Democrats. He pointed out how conservative Democrats-- mostly, but not exclusively, in the South-- were preventing equality under the law for the descendants of the African-Americans they had enslaved and fought a Civil War to keep in bondage. Eventually almost all of those southerners found their way to the Republican Party, which they have since taken over, like a cancer.

Today, no matter how many times you hear Debbie Wasserman Schultz or Steve Israel braying about the big tent party, even they wouldn't dare suggest the tent is big enough for pro-slavery racists. Those people belong in the GOP, not the Democratic Party. So why is the Democratic Party still recruiting virulent homophobes? Steve Israel says its part of the DCCC's "big tent approach" to recruit bigots like Jennifer Garrison. While Nancy Pelosi was working like a dog to figure out how to pass ENDA over John Boehner's opposition, Steny Hoyer and Steve Israel were out raising money for Garrison and tricking other Democratic congressmembers into contributing to her campaign. I even noticed that a gay congressman had donated $1,000 to her campaign at Israel's request. I suspect that Israel never told him any of this:

House Majority Floor Leader Jennifer Garrison of Marietta wants the Equal Housing and Employment Act to wait until after the November 2010 election, according to some of her colleagues, so that she can run for secretary of state without having to answer for her vote on it.

The bill, also known as EHEA or H.R. 176, prohibits discrimination by sexual orientation or gender identity in public and private employment, housing and public accommodations. It passed the State Government Committee 8-5 on June 17 and could be voted on by the entire House at any time.

Twenty-one other states have similar measures, including one passed last week in Delaware. No federal protections exist.

There have been six House sessions since the bill cleared the committee, most consumed by budget matters. Legislators and the governor could not agree on a budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, and the state is running on temporary resolutions until an agreement can be reached.

But the House has voted on other matters in those six sessions, expanding domestic violence laws to include foster parents, changing the licensing of dental assistants and proposing a constitutional amendment to set livestock care standards.

Some EHEA supporters are concerned that delaying the vote will hurt its chances to pass during the present two-year session, requiring it to be reintroduced for the next one in 2011.

The measure’s Democratic sponsor, Dan Stewart of Columbus, is not concerned with the bill’s speed so far, but also sees no benefit in it lingering.

“I don’t want it to come up on a budget vote,” Stewart said. “People won’t be focused on anything but the budget, but if we’re passing other legislation, I want it to move.”

The bill now has between 53 and 61 “Yes” votes in the 99-member House, depending on who is asked. Fifty votes are needed to pass it. The chamber has 53 Democrats and 46 Republicans.

Stewart believes that 8 to 12 Republicans will join 51 Democrats in voting for the bill, when it comes to the House floor.

House Speaker Armond Budish of Beachwood made it clear on Equality Ohio’s lobby day in May that he would move the bill quickly.

His spokesperson, Keary McCarthy, stood by that commitment on June 30.

But Garrison has been quietly pulling in the other direction.

One of the most socially conservative Democrats in the General Assembly, colleagues say Garrison is very influential with Budish.

She is running for secretary of state next year, and will face Franklin County Commissioner Marilyn Brown in the Democratic primary. Brown is backed by current Secretary Jennifer Brunner, who is running for U.S. Senate. The winner will face either Republican State Sen. Jon Husted or former Ashtabula County Treasurer Sandy O’Brien.

Garrison already has a rocky relationship with the LGBT community. She won her House seat by gay-baiting her predecessor, Nancy Hollister, in 2004.

Earlier that year, Hollister was the only Republican to vote against the so-called “defense of marriage act.” It was considered a courageous vote.

Garrison sent out mailings that read, “If you believe marriage is between one man and one woman, there’s something you should know about Nancy Hollister.”

The other side of the card said, “DOMA was enacted precisely to protect Ohioans from having to accept ‘marriages’ or ‘unions’ entered into in other states. Despite the value of DOMA, Nancy Hollister voted against it. Jennifer Garrison believes marriage is between one man and one woman and will fight to protect our values.”

In 2006, as a member of the House Education Committee, Garrison helped to kill an amendment that would have required Ohio schools to protect students from bullying for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The anti-bullying bill passed without the LGBT protections.

An attorney, Garrison opposed EHEA last year, saying it is wrong to single out classes of people for protection. This is a common talking point that anti-gays use against equality laws, and is legally flawed.

Garrison is now on the DCCC Jumpstart List. She's a Steve Israel kind of recruit. Now watch that Daylin Leach video up top. He's not on the jumpstart list and he hasn't been recruited by Steve Israel and he's not a Steve Israel kind of recruit. In fact, Steny Hoyer, who has already maxed-out to Garrison, has endorsed one of Daylin's conservative opponents. If you'd like to help Daylin bring his message of inclusivity and equality to Congress… well, here's the place.


UPDATE… Kind Of

And, speaking about how racism and homophobia have been banished from respectable circles, a few words on the Richard Cohen column from today's Washington KKK Post by Jamison Foser:

Richard Cohen famously attacked Iraq war skeptics as "fools or frenchmen." He's regularly and enthusiastically endorsed torture. He's repeatedly downplayed sexual misconduct, including referring to the act of getting a 13-year-old drunk and raping her as "seduction." He's said that calling hate crimes "hate crimes" is almost as bad as hate crimes (read: murder) themselves. He justified the profiling of Trayvon Martin because a hoodie is a "uniform we all recognize." He just learned last week at his local movie theater that slavery was not benign. (Though he opposes affirmative action because race "has become supremely irrelevant.") He downplayed the Bush administration's politically-motivated outting of a CIA agent (and he lied about the victims in the process). A recurring theme of his columns is that straight white men can't catch a break because the gays, women, and racial minorities have all the power. He regularly displays open contempt for liberals. And the Washington Post bills him as a liberal columnist.

Given that history, I don't think Cohen's use of "conventional" was inadvertently sympathetic. I think it was sympathetic. But even if it was inadvertent-- even if everything above was inadvertent-- I'd like to think a professional writer would be competent enough at his craft to get through a column without accidentally defending slavery or rape or revulsion at interracial marriage.

  And regardless of his motivation or intent, I'm about 15 years past being sick of one of the nation's two most important newspapers pretending this guy represents my views.