Pictured California State Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremmont. Openly gay Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden. Photos by Rex Wockner.
SAN DIEGO — More than 200 hard-core Democratic GLBT activists from 27 states huddled here Aug. 25-28 at the National Stonewall Democrats 2005 Organizing Convention.
'We still have so much to do,' said lesbian California Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego. 'The conservatives and the religious right are a strong force with generous resources and they will fight us every step of the way. They'll use their money, their political hold they have over supposed Republican moderates like John McCain, and their ties to big business and to numerous right-wing think tanks. They will say our equal rights are special rights.'
In an interview, Kehoe said the Stonewall Democrats are about 'strategic organizing, articulating a message and getting GLBT Americans to vote and to be active.'
'This organization is for the person who is going to give hours and hours to a local campaign, who's gonna raise money, write checks, go to meeting after meeting,' she said. 'These are the shock troops that go out and raise the interest of the average voter.'
Stonewall Democrats Executive Director Eric Stern said the organization finds itself at a key juncture.
'It's a critical time to be working within the party because, quite honestly, in a number of states I think there is a resistance by state party chairs to involve our community in party activities,' he said. 'We play the role of effectuating change within the party. ... We need to remind the state party chairs around the country that we provide the volunteer energy, we provide the finances, we provide the staff, the ideas, the creativity to so many winning campaigns—and unless we are given a nicer welcome mat, then there's no reason for us to support state parties.'
But State Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, who is running for lieutenant governor, said the Stonewall Dems need to refine their message.
'A national organization like this needs to speak from one voice, have one clear message that is simple to deliver and brings in nongay legislators like myself so that we, holding hands, can deliver an easy message that everybody feels good about,' she said in an interview. 'Right now, we're splintering each other. It would be much more powerful to have one clear message.
'For me, it's human rights,' Figueroa said. 'How many people that I know pride themselves that they were associated with the civil-rights movement? Well, this is a civil-rights movement! People will look down in the history books and, I really, truly believe, regret that they weren't part of this incredible movement right now.'
In a lunchtime speech, Figueroa promised delegates she will 'go up and down the state, speaking in Spanish, speaking to other grandmothers, speaking to católicos, speaking to anybody I have to about marriage equality, human dignity, human compassion and love.'
Gay Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden said Stonewall also must maintain its focus on electing open gays to public office.
'The greatest thing that we're going to do is to continue working on making sure that we get openly gay and lesbian candidates elected,' he said in an interview. 'Also, the coalition that we're building to support our marriage-equality initiative and to make sure that our issues continue to stay in the front line of Democratic equality issues.'
San Diego City Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Donna Frye told delegates they need to 'make sure that there's someone there [ in office ] that's an advocate and that will speak up for you and will do the right thing even when there's nobody watching, and then make sure that the things that are being done behind closed doors, that you should see—that those doors are kicked right back open.'
'When I first ran for my City Council seat in January of 2001,' she said, 'there were a lot of hot-button issues, and probably none hotter than the Boy Scouts.'
Gay activists, atheists and the American Civil Liberties Union were suing to cancel the Boy Scouts' sweetheart lease on land in the city's Balboa Park because of their ban on gays and atheists.
'It turned out to be extremely controversial,' Frye said. 'The amount of negative campaigning and nasty comments, the extremely inflammatory—and I mean inflammatory—campaign ads that went out in our community—one of them was a picture of a Boy Scout, and it was a crying Boy Scout, he was weeping, and then there was a picture of a happy Boy Scout, and he was smiling. The crying Boy Scout was crying because of Donna Frye. I made the Boy Scout cry! Because standing up for God and your country wasn't good enough for Donna Frye.'
