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Is he gay? Is he straight? And who is asking and why?
Perhaps the last question is really the important one. Why does a candidate who is lagging in the polls ask another candidate in a public forum why he won’t come “out” to his parents? Congressional candidate Benny Shendo implies that he knows one of his opponents, Ben Ray Lujan, is gay and questions his integrity because he won’t tell his parents and the rest of the world about his gay sexual orientation.
I don’t care if Ben Ray Lujan is gay or not. He says he is not so I take him at his word. As candidate Shendo would explain it, he is not attacking candidate Lujan for being gay, but instead for simply not telling the rest of us especially his parents. Such an omission according to Shendo reflects on Lujan’s credibility and honesty. As someone who is gay, that is a tough explanation to swallow.
For years people who are gay and lesbian have often hidden their sexual orientation for fear of losing their jobs, their friends and family, their security and safety. In many ways our country’s views have changed.
Nineteen states have actually passed laws that prohibit employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation. Sixteen states have hate crimes laws that provide for enhanced penalties for crimes perpetrated upon individuals just because they are gay. Two states now allow marriage for same sex couples and six states enable protections for people in a domestic partnerships or civil unions.
But the picture for out gay people is not always pretty. People who are gay still cannot serve openly in the military despite our desperate need for soldiers. Every year Congress tries to pass federal employment protections based upon sexual orientation, but it fails. Some of the most heinous hate crimes have had gay people as their victims – think Mathew Sheppard. And there is no better fundraising tool for the right wing than to talk about gays and lesbians as if we caused God to allow planes to fly into the twin towers in New York because “the United States had become a nation of abortion, homosexuality, secular schools and courts, and the American civil liberties union” (Reverend Pat Robertson). So while acceptance, tolerance and even equality become mainstream in parts of America, it is still OK to bring out the gay red herring when we want to tarnish someone’s reputation.
It is appalling then that a candidate in a Democratic Primary who says he supports gay and lesbian rights would use the “gay issue” to try to destroy one of his opponents. These are the tactics of the right wing, the Republicans, the so-called Christian Right. This is a wedge issue that has been successfully used over the last seven years to divide us as a nation – guns, God and gays. This is the way to say to other Americans, he’s not one of us. With one word this is how we say you can’t trust your children with him. With one word this is how we say his values are not the same as ours. With one word this is how we make him “the other”. The tragedy is that if we let it, this one word still works.
Linda Siegle is a longtime legislative lobbyist in Santa Fe and a supporter of Ben Ray Lujan in the 3rd Congressional District race.
