So, for example, when Barack Obama decided to use homophobia as a campaign strategy in the South Carolina primary and the Democratic Party (as well as the 'left') stayed silent, it was thought by some, "Oh well, the DNC supports gay rights and, besides, Howard Dean's a 'friend' to gay rights."
Howard Dean?
The blowhard took to bragging about himself in a Rolling Stone Interview (February 5, 2004, he was the cover boy, Jann's never known how to pick them) and all he'd done for gay rights and the desire "to do the right thing" which led the interviewers (Wenner and Will Dana) to point out (p. 49), "Didn't you also say at the time that the whole idea of legally sanctioned gay relationships made you feel uncomfortable?"
Reply: "Sure." So much for Gay America's good 'friend.'
And some, like Donna Brazile, have been actively undercutting and attacking gay rights for some time (yes, Brazile is self-loathing). In 2006, Ben Smith (New York Daily News) noted this correspondence from Emily Giske:
I asked Garry about the specific language he has proposed. He said that right now, we should be positioning the proposal as the same as the Affirmative Action requirement the DNC has for Blacks, Hispanics, Asian/Pacifics, and Native Americans (which requires states to have specific goals and timetables for their inclusion in the delegation).
Supposedly, this is what originally upset Donna [Brazile] -- because she doesn't think this qualifies under the legal definition of Affirmative Action.
Donna and others ... do not believe our battle for civil rights can be compared with what African Americans have faced in gaining the right to vote and participate in Party affairs. In the end though, Garry may have to settle for something that does not say "Affirmative Action" but still requires states to set specific goals.
It didn't end there, of course it wouldn't ever end for Big Momma's Mouth. She has pursued a slash-and-burn policy and it's not about equality or even historical legacy, it's about refusing inclusion because you fear it means you lose out on something.
And it is that bigoted and vindictive fearful mindset on the part of people like Brazile and Leah Daughtry that's led to the lawsuit. As Kevin Naff and Joshua Lynsen (Washington Blade) reported back in January:
Daughtry, who is black, is a longtime party operative, Dean's chief of staff and overseeing the party's upcoming national convention in Denver. She was unavailable for an interview this week, but a gay coworker defended her performance at the DNC.
"I do not consider her in any way, shape or form homophobic," said Philip McNamara, the DNC's director of party affairs. "She is a good, caring person."
Daughtry was deposed last week in a lawsuit filed by former DNC gay outreach director Donald Hitchcock, who was fired shortly after his domestic partner, Paul Yandura, criticized Dean in a 2006 letter to gay Democrats.
The lawsuit alleges Hitchcock was discriminated against and treated differently at the DNC because he is gay. It also alleges the DNC "threatened, interfered with and retaliated against" Hitchcock because he advocated for gay issues.
The issue isn't disappearing. Scott Shepard (Austin American-Statesman) reported on Howard Dean's video deposition (link has the video of it) in Hitchock's case last week:
In the video, Dean describes how he has tried to be a peacemaker between gays and lesbians and prominent African American leaders, led by onetime Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile, who had objected to goals and timetables for gay and lesbian delegates to the party’s national convention.
“I wanted equal representation for gay and lesbian Americans, and I wanted to achieve it in a way that wasn’t offensive to the history of the civil rights movement,” Dean says in the deposition, which was videotaped in March but only made public a week ago.
The Civil Rights Movement? Shut the f**k up, Howard Dean. Universal rights are universal and how dare you sell the idea that inclusion means someone else gets left out. We either all share rights or it's not equality. Brazile and these other players were also the ones leading the charge against bi- and multi-racial people in the nineties. It's not about equality for them, it's never about equality. It's never about fairness. It's about Gimme-Gimmie-Gimmie MORE!
Barack Obama is bi-racial but doesn't identify as such (today) as a result of a number of things including the fact that his rock-solid support among 'opinion makers' doesn't support bi- or multi-racial people. The whole nonsense attacks on them from the self-appointed African-American leaders last decade was based on nothing but greed and hatred because if they couldn't identify everyone with a 'drop of Black blood' (how very KKK of them) as "Black" (and we all saw mental midget Melissa Harris-Lacewell don the white sheet last year during her interview with Bill Moyers), their numbers would drop in the census. It was about shutting the gates to reality (and advancement) out of concern over possibly losing some federal money that rigid, out-of-date categories would allow them to continue to claim.
It's not a story that's widely known outside of those working for the recognition of bi- and multi-racial people. But it's one that revealed greed and hatred and that underscored how bigots come in all shapes and colors.
It's behind the continued attacks on Latinos (which Brazile took part in May of this year on CNN) because they are the largest growing segment of the population and, while bigots like Brazile have been able to reduce race in America down to either Black or White, that increasing population will likely leave Brazile grabbing for scraps the same way she expects the LGBT community, the bi- and multi-racial community, and Asian-Americans to do currently -- and she expects them to be damn grateful. Poor, Fat Ass Donna Brazile, in what she's so desperately trying to set up as "MY TIME," is going to find her shoved off into some specialist nook by mere demographics.
And when she and her like-minded bigots are confronted with that reality and they then start screaming about the need for equality and the need for representation, let's hope others believe in fairness. If not Brazile & Company will find out just what it's like to be spat on by people who should be friends -- the same way Brazile's spent two decades spitting on anyone who wasn't straight and Black or White.
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First illustration by Betty's oldest son, second illustration Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Message From A Heavy Weight."