>I celebrate the fact that there are several gay men who appear poised to be
>our next Council Members. I also have to point out that there are no
>lesbians or gay men persons of color on this list. Karen Clark remains our
>only out elected lesbian and we have no elected gay persons of color. Yet
>there are a large number of lesbians and gay men of color active in
>Minneapolis politics. Maybe Minneapolis isn't quite a hip as it likes to
>think it is?
------------------------
Carol, I don't know how you can assume that. Matthea Little Smith has been
active on this list, is openly Lesbian, and is African American..... I've
also never quite understood the term "people of color". It seems to mean
all those who are not in the "caucasion" category on Census forms. So
Italian Americans count as caucasions, while Spanish Americans count as
people of color--because they are hispanic--but when you think about it.
But I don't know how you can make the blanket statement that there are no
lesbians or gay men of color active on this list. Only a small number of
those subscribed to the list, post.
Years ago, when I was active in the DFL, both Eddie Bolden (an openly Gay
African American man) and I ran for National Delegate. I got much more
support than Eddie did from the African American Caucus. Part of the
reason was real obvious--they wanted to make sure that the African American
Delegates were straight. One of the African American delegates that came
out of this vote was Alfred Babington Johnson.
Does all this mean there is more anti-bigotry in the Black community than
in among whites? I don't think there is evidence to support this.
However, what I have noticed, is that liberals sometimes like to overlook
anti-gay bigotry from African Americans, which they would never accept from
white candidates.
Ironically, when the Gail Dorfman-Peter Bell matchup was going on, friends
of mine got called telling them, that Peter Bell was a theocrat. And this
was gay people calling my friends. Some of them voted for Dorfman on that
basis (so this tactic was successful). Some of the same people who said
Peter Bell was a theocrat, also supported Alfred Babington Johnson's DFL
endorsement for schoolboard in 1990. And Babington-Johnson's views on a
number of issues really were theocratic. Still "liberals" like Peter
McLaughlin, Mayor Fraser, and others supported Babington--big time.
However, Babington failed to get DFL endorsement, he came in 6th out of 7th
in the 1990 primary, and came in 4th in the general, and lost that election.
Eva
Eva Young
Central
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