Saturday, June 11, 2005

Think First, Act Later....PLEASE

I've noticed a disturbing trend of late among the religious right groups opposing gay rights....they're getting smarter, much smarter. What's making this trend more and more dangerous is the apparent trend among gay activists in response......they're getting dumber, MUCH dumber.

Case in point; the recent bill signing by Texas Governor Rick Perry of Texas's new parental notification law for abortion. As I blogged previously, this had all the earmarks of a brilliant Machiavellian setup, especially since the anti-gay marriage amendment didn't even HAVE to be signed, for Perry to both grab a large base of support and to get lumped together in the minds of the public abortionists with Democrats, gay protestors, the ACLU, the antireligious, and others.

Making matters worse, along came Washington Blade Executive Editor Chris Crain, who took the bait and fell right into the trap, claiming publicly that "abortion is essentially a gay-rights issue" as a reason for why gays should oppose parental notification, despite the fact that over three-quarters of Texans, regardless of their ethnic group, support it. In essence, not only was Chris making the strange comparison that the rights of gays are somehow being impaired by limits on something that gays almost by definition would never use (how many abortions do gay people have a year, anyway?), he was arguing that the 75% of Texans who think that their daughters should have to have the same level of consent for an abortion that they do to get their ears pierced or get a Tylenol from the school nurse are discriminating against gays.

I may not be a Beltway political consultant, but I'm pretty sure that opposing something that 75% of voters want for a spurious reason is not a good way to ensure political longevity.

Meanwhile, over at AmericaBLOG, John Aravosis is launching his latest missive against a letter sent to John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, complaining about the federation's stance on gay marriage and constitutional amendments state and Federal.

John's statement:

And, big surprise, it's just as packed full of lies as their now-failed boycott of Ford (the one that lasted, oh, like a week). They accuse the unions, just like they accused Ford, of supporting gay marriage simply because they oppose anti-gay hate. Amazing connection the fundamentalist Christian hate groups make, trying to tie anything pro-gay to an all-out endorsement and push for gay marriage.

As the letter notes, the AFL-CIO has an affiliate, Pride At Work, ostensibly devoted to workplace protections for glbts. However, when you go to their website, you notice on the side a big bold "MARRIAGE CENTER" link -- and when you click on it, you find a page encouraging people to "use the following model resolutions" to "demystify the issue of civil marriage to our labor counterparts" -- including the Model Civil Marriage Resolution that is titled, when you open the document, "Model Resolution to Support Civil Marriage
for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals". And, if you need more information.....you can contact Jeremy Bishop at jbishop - at - aflcio.com.

Let's see, page of organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO supporting bringing resolutions in support of gay marriage and saying that, if you have any questions, to contact this AFL-CIO employee -- but the AFL-CIO isn't supporting gay marriage at all, according to gay activists. Thanks, John.....now in the AFA et al.'s eyes, not only are we immoral perverts, we're lying idiots as well....and they have proof of the latter.

Furthermore, there's a reason these groups are making this move against the AFL-CIO now -- they're aware of the power struggles and divisions within the AFL-CIO over the organization's direction, primarily the claims that leaders like Sweeney are out of touch with union members' needs and concerns and are too focused on politics instead of growing unions. This is similar to their announcing a boycott of Ford right about the time Ford announced that its sales in the month of May were down 10.5%.

What it appears that these religious right groups have figured out is that it does no good to go after companies or groups that are doing well or are established brands, i.e. Disney. While many gay groups have crowed that the boycott of Ford "failed" because it was suspended after a week and didn't get a response from Ford Corporate, that ignores the immediate response the actions of the AFA got from the Ford dealers -- which, if one understands the structure of the auto industry, is where the real power in the company resides, because dealers are in essence the company's only customers (read Lee Iacocca's book, "Iacocca", for a great description of the gymnastics that car companies perform for dealers); they were not about to take the bullet for Ford Corporate, and I think there will be a reaction in a few months, especially if Ford's sales continue to decline (and dealer profits go down).

In the case of the AFL-CIO, the tactic is exactly the same -- the religious right groups are using the views of the members to undercut and force the leaders to comply. My opinion is that the vast majority of AFL-CIO affiliate members are not even aware of the resolution, much less Pride at Work's promotion of gay marriage, which is why the religious right groups are threatening to inform them of the fact -- and of union members' rights to withhold union dues in certain instances. As they point out, the vast majority of union members oppose gay marriage and support state constitutional amendments to ban it -- and for them to find out that the union to which they pay a considerable sum of their salary is campaigning for the opposite could have devastating consequences.

A very smart move indeed on their part -- and then John amplifies the problem with the mistake typical of the tunnel vision of a Beltway gay activist.

Please contact the AFL-CIO and thank them for their past support for civil rights for ALL Americans, and let them know that you stand with them and are here to support them in their battle against anti-civil rights hate groups.

Now we have gay activists sending public letters of thanks to AFL-CIO leadership for supporting things that a majority of their members oppose -- during a time when the AFL-CIO is threatening to tear apart because its members believe their leaders are out of touch with their views on the issues. The word "counterproductive" doesn't even begin to describe this. What John should be pushing people to do is to work on union MEMBERSHIP, not make it more obvious that the leadership is out of step with their members' views, but in true DC fashion, he ignores those icky voters who don't agree with him in favor of sucking up to leaders who will pull a Kerry the minute gay rights start costing them power.

The message here with both Crain and Aravosis is that, while action is good, one should always think before acting. While it was very tempting to protest Perry's appearance, it also lumped gay issues in with ones people are against. In Aravosis's case, while it's nice to send letters of support, when that support can and will be used to exacerbate another issue, forget the letters. In all cases, make sure you are appealing to the VOTERS and taking their views into consideration, not just pandering to out-of-touch leaders or protesting to be protesting.

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