Sharon and RT have both shown leadership around GLBT
issues in our community. Sharon has been responsive
to the GLBT community's concerns as a public official.
RT did a great community service in helping bring
together OUT at Twin Cities Reader.
Minneapolis has historically been a leader on GLBT
issues being the first city in North America to
provide protection from discrimination on the basis of
gender identity('74) and the second in the US to
provide protection from sexual orientation
discrimination(Ann Arbor, MI was first) several years
before San Francisco.
Minneapolis and St Paul have been leaders in making
schools safe for glbt youth, staff, and parents.
None the less, Minneapolis has fallen behind many
other major cities in policy on GLBT issues. In one
way or another, New Orleans,LA, Atlanta,GA,
Chicago,IL, New York,NY, and many many other cities
have passed policies catching up to Minneapolis and
surpassing Minneapolis in many policy matters during
the 90's.
For example, Witchita, Kansas, Kalamazoo, Michigan,
and many other cities that can hardly be said to be
liberal or to have large glbt populations, now offer
domestic partnership benefits to their employees.
San Francisco offers employees coverage of health care
related to gender identity. Gender identity related
health care is just that-Health Care!
New York,NY offers domestic partnership registration
to it's residents that extends the right to see one's
partner in the hospital and many other rights within
the city limits or under the city government's
control.
Congress is allowing the District of Columbia to
implement it's domestic partnership benefits policy
for the first time since it was passed in '92. The DC
dp policy is very inclusive allowing one to claim an
adult sibling, parent, friend, or intimate partner as
a domestic partner so long as an interdependency can
be demonstrated.
Many cities now require contractors of a certain size
to offer domestic partnerships to their employees.
Others require all contractors to explicitly include
sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination
policies. In this way, they impact the glbt community
beyond their borders as well as within them. ACT
LOCALLY, THINK GLOBALLY!
In most states, the kind of entrapment of gay and
bisexual men that goes on in our community has been
ruled to be unconstitutional under most state
constitutions.
I worked for the Violations Bureau for several months
and was amazed at the number of tickets that crossed
my desk related to entrapment stings. Though public
sex is a real problem, entrapment often attempts to
ensnare men who aren't looking to engage in such
behavior.
One such case I am aware of involved a young man who
worked at Dayton's. He had just moved to the city
from northern MN after graduating high school to
acclimate himself to the city before attending the U
of M. He went to use the restroom on a break and was
approached by a man who came on to him very very
strong. He thought the man was attractive and was
trying to figure out how to respond when the man
exposed himself and encouraged him to touch his
erection. The young man hesitated and the man pulled
out a badge and told him he was under arrest for
soliciting sex and handcuffed him.
The young man was arrested and dragged through the
store all the time being told that everyone else in
the store new why the undercover officer was there.
He was held for a time in the cell where they hold
shoplifters and was released and the charges were
dropped since he was an employee.
I belive this kind of aggressive entrapment is an
egregious form of harrassment engaged in by our local
police. There are many other ways to control and
limit the occurence of public sex without resulting to
such tactics.
I believe the lack of an independent nonpartisan
organization that endorses candidates on glbt issues
is partially to blame. Outfront does great work in
the community but is reactive and restrained on the
political front. This is understandable since they
are primarily a social services and community building
non profit partially dependent on public funding from
the state. They do great work but another voice is
needed.
Stonewall DFL has also done much wonderful work and
certainly has some real power in the Mpls. DFl. My
one criticism here is that the screening questionaire
they use has little teeth in asking local elected
officials to implement policies in areas they actually
have control over. I don't know if this is a recent
event or related to energy going into all the openly
gay candidates the DFL is running this year, but it
does strike me as rather soft gloved.
Rather than bringing up issues that may require
politicians to have some back bone, Stonewall DFL
tends to ask about issues about which the community
generally already agrees(dp benefits for public
employees) or where the council can have little
impact(marriage). At some Stonewall DFL screenings I
attended, candidates glowed about the fact that they
have gay friends. Can you imagine the NAACP or any
other self respecting African-American organization
endorsing someone who says "I'm not racist! Some of my
best friends are black."
On the other hand, many of our existing public
officials seem more than willing to take on the issues
if they are simply asked.
Well, there's a few of my thoughts and impressions.
Thanks for reading!
David Strand
Ward 7
Loring Park
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