[CUGreens] Queers for Nader

[danielstephen <danielstephen@earthlink.net>]

Hi All:

    The LBGT Greens are organizing at local levels in many parts of the
country now.  We're not getting media attention, but there has been an
amazing upsurge of queer activities in the Nader campaign!  Queers have been
working at the Nader super rallies and building support and contact lists.
Our fledgling green group is now growing rapidly.

     -Ralph has an interview in the current edition of the national queer
magazine "The Advocate," on the stands now.  He explains his "gonadal
politics" comment and puts it in context for queers.

    -I will be receving a shipment of "Queers for Nader" buttons soon.
Contact me at danielstephen@earthlink.net or (303) 469-7353 if you want one.
If there is enough interest I might put in a bulk order. These will be
trophy items after the campaign!

    -the Colorado Lavender Greens will be putting out a mass mailing this
weekend to local lbgt addresses.  If you would like to help stuff it and
sort it contact me: danielstephen@earthlink.net or (303) 469-7353

    -there is an article about Nader, Forthofer, and the queer greens in the
current issue of Equality Colorado's Newsletter.  In case you can't get to
an issue, I'm reprinting it below.

    -Gore's weakness on lbgt issues has been revealed during the debates, as
he consistently fudges on the question of gay marriage and cleverly refers
of "civic" [sic] unions.

    -to join the Lavender Green email list send a request to Starlene Rankin
at starlene@iastate.edu.

    Repost! Disseminate to queer email lists!  Go! Go!  Go team go!

    Dan

//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\

From the Equality Colorado newsletter.


Politics Outside the Boardroom: The Green Stripe in the Rainbow Flag

by Dan Stephen
Ph.D. candidate, Colorado University

    The native American activist Winona LaDuke, running for vice-president
with Ralph Nader on the Green Party ticket, quoted an old Iroquois saying
during a recent campaign appearance: ³Consider the consequences of your
actions for the seventh generation of your descendants.²  Mainstream
politicians think only of winning the next election.  Greens, including Ron
Forthofer, running for Congress in Coloradoıs second district, are also
fighting to win.  But Greens believe that corporate influence and big money
have so corrupted the political process, it is necessary to build a third
party and a popular coalition to reconstruct our society for the long term.
If Nader succeeds in winning five percent of the popular vote on election
day, the Greens will qualify for federal matching funds in the next election
cycle and Greens can continue placing genuinely gay-friendly candidates in
local and national elections.  This long view is necessary if we are to
overcome the obstacles to real social reform.  The ³Lavender Greens,² the
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender caucus of the Green Party, want to
make sure queers are a part of this coalition.

    The Green Party National Convention, held in Denver this summer, did not
accept any corporate donations and consequently looked very different from
the staged infomercials beamed out of Philadelphia and Los Angeles.   There
were no scenes of massed delegates waving fans and chanting ³together with
Bush,² or ³Tipper rocks.²  Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke did not pose
reverentially, hands clasped in prayer, in front of TV cameras.  The lesbian
and gay speakers at the Green convention, including ACT-UP activist Ann
Northrop, did not pretend queers are nothing but mainstream vanilla pudding.
No one spoke in favor of the death penalty, or called for increased military
spending.  The only demonstrators at the Green convention were a group
called ³Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)² who, dressed as plutocrats, tried
to ³bribe² Green delegates with fake thousand dollar bills.  This friendly
group was plainly on our side, so we did not barricade ourselves inside the
convention hotel or call out the police to fire rubber bullets at them.

    Corporate influence has helped fuel a political convergence that has
both Democrats and Republicans scrambling to occupy a ³safe center.²  This
almost pathological need to conform can easily be illustrated by examining
how Bill Clinton and Al Gore have sacrificed many traditional progressive
positions, but their record on lesbian and gay issues during eight years of
presidential and vice-presidential leadership will do as well as any.
Clintonıs presidency opened with a call to ban anti-gay discrimination in
the military (a policy Ralph Nader and Ron Forthofer support) that quickly
retreated and turned instead into a unique ³donıt ask, donıt tell² policy.
The tragedy is that most Americans believe this to be a reasonable
compromise, while in fact the number of discharges for homosexuality have
increased during eight years of anti-gay witch hunts.  Similarly, Surgeon
General Joycelyn Elders seemed at first the kind of forthright and outspoken
leader we needed to educate the American public about sexual risk and HIV;
but she was soon fired for supporting progressive sex education.  Ralph
Nader and Ron Forthofer support same-sex marriage; Al Gore supported Clinton
when he signed the ³Defense of Marriage Act,² which legitimated homophobia
in the eyes of many Americans.  Some excuse Clinton for signing this act,
but was it necessary for Clinton to follow up his signing by taking out
campaign ads in southern states advertising his anti-gay position?

    Nader and Forthofer both support federal funding for needle-exchange
programs to deter the spread of HIV, and legalizing the use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes.  The Clinton-Gore administration have used their
influence to block both, in spite of extensive research showing their value.
Nader has made a name for himself over the last few years fighting to end
trade sanctions blocking African, Asian, and South American countries from
manufacturing low cost AIDS drugs.  Goreıs record on this issue is a
disgrace, he followed the line of the drug companies and used his office to
support the threat of sanctions, especially against South Africa, later
dropping this threat after protests from AIDS activists (including Greens).
Nader and Forthofer both support single payer national health insurance,
which guarantees quality health care, prescription medicine, and choice of
physician to all Americans, regardless of ability to pay, employment, age,
or prior medical condition.  The Clinton-Gore Administration have eliminated
the traditional Democratic party promise to provide national health care and
Goreıs 2000 Democratic Platform does not revive it.  Gore urged Clinton to
sign the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which ended relief for HIV+ men.
    
    The Democrats want to scare us with the bogey of right-wing Supreme
Court nominations under a Bush presidency.  But the Democrats in Congress
overwhelmingly supported anti-queer, anti-abortion Supreme Court nominees
Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas during the last Bush administration!

    The concentration of power at the top of our society, in the form of
corporate influence and big money political campaigns, has so corrupted the
political process that a Green Party is necessary.  ³Better than Bush² is
not good enough.  The Colorado chapter of the Lavender Greens would like to
ask members of Equality Colorado to support a strong third party alternative
that will not sell out on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

    People wishing to contact the Colorado Lavender Greens may email
lavgreens@earthlink.net or call Dan Stephen at (303) 469-7353.
    

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