May 16, 2007
EDITOR'S NOTE: This commentary is about the 37th Congressional District
Race.
Recently California Senator Sheila Kuehl lambasted Assembly member
Laura Richardson of Long Beach for being homophobic.
The occasion? Richardson is one of 19 candidates running to replace
the vacancy left by the untimely passing of Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald.
Richardson is considered is frontrunner in the campaign along with
State Senator Jenny Oropeza.
In an email Kuehl denounced Richardson, who is Black, and urged recipients
to support Oropeza, who is Latino. Kuehl said "Oropeza has long
been a friend to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender)
community," and that Richardson's earlier campaign mailers "were
filled with homophobic hate speech so shocking that many of her biggest
supporters withdrew their endorsements of her candidacy."
The campaign mailers that Kuehl referenced were sent out over ten years
ago during Richardson's 1996 Assembly run against Gerrie Schipske.
The mailer accused her opponent of being "committed to the radical
gay agenda" and "strongly backed by ultra liberal Santa Monica
Assembly member Sheila Kuehl, the Assembly's only openly gay member."
Ten years ago was ten years ago, and a lot can happen in that span
of time, including education and new sense of right and wrong. While
the campaign mailers were nasty, Richardson is not who she was ten
years ago and today she is supportive of gay and lesbian civil rights.
I know because I asked her about this last year which is what prompted
me to invite her to speak at the State of Black LGBT California where
Senator Kuehl was also a guest.
During the discussion, then Assembly candidate Richardson, shared the
story of her parents struggle with their inter-racial marriage during
a time when it was unpopular. She compared the struggle of her parents
to the gay community's quest for the right to get married.
Now mind you, Senator Kuehl was there as Richardson shared her story
and discussed the mistakes that she'd made in the past regarding the
gay community and where she was today.
Flash forward to a year later with a very controversial Congressional
seat up for grabs that in some ways has pitted Black voters against
Latino voters, and enter the gay factor.
In California, more often than not, Black politicians are labeled as
homophobic until proven friendly, but the gay leadership is barking
up the wrong tree with this one.
Us gays spend an incredible amount of time, energy, and money on trying
to change public opinion on our issues, primarily marriage. From ad
campaigns, to lobbyists, protests, and the like, we are all about changing
the attitudes of Americans when it comes to our issues. But what happens
when we succeed? What happens when we actually have an impact and we
change the way someone views us or we cause someone to rethink their
position on our issues? Richardson, like many of us have, had a change
of heart, mind, and soul. We can't continue to demonize her for something
she did in the past that she has worked hard to make amends for while
repairing damaged relationships. If we do, then we are the hypocrites,
and not the Richardson's of the world.
Kuehl's accusation was premature and only served to benefit her colleague
and Richardson's main opponent Oropeza. Knowing that Oropeza already
had the Latino vote, Kuehl's letter served as the official nod for
the LGBT community's support as well. But I'm here to say that not
all gays will be supporting Oropeza and that there's a significant
number of Black gays who know, love, and admire Richardson's commitment
to the LGBT community, I am one of them. Not to mention the fact that
gay and lesbian issues aren't the end all in this race. As an African
American lesbian I am also looking at sending someone to D.C. who is
going to represent my concerns on the rising cost of health care, the
economy, education funding, ending the war in Iraq, and Social Security.
The gay political leadership has a sorry track record for supporting
African American issues and it seems that the only time the two worlds
meet is when one is accusing the other of being homophobic. While the
gays are screaming "marriage, marriage, marriage!," those
of us in the African American community, including Black gays and lesbians,
are screaming "jobs, affordable housing, education, and health
care!" And at the end of the day, in California Black politicians
are more likely to support gays on their issues than gays are on Black
issues.
After years of hard work in the Black community on behalf of Black
gays to bring our community together, Kuehl's letter did nothing more
than try create a larger divide between Blacks and gays and I'm not
having it. We've worked too hard in our community to heal wounds and
repair relationships to have it all go down the drain because the "powers
that be" are ill-informed and misguided.
Stooping to the level of accusing Richardson of being homophobic crosses
the line for me in this campaign and is a dirty low blow coming from
California's gay leadership. And while I am sure that there won't be
a race among the Black political leadership to defend Assembly member
Richardson, because this is still controversial issue for Blacks, I
on the other hand have no problem raising my voice as a member of the
LGBT community in support of Richardson and urging others to do the
same.
more
commentary-->