A week's worth of gay and lesbian news,
that's what this column is about. And I work hard to deliver on that
promise. What's the promise of the Democratic party? Inclusion they
say. Yet this week a shock of cold bath water in our faces as a draft of the Democratic National platform excluded the words gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Most gay leaders lamented the weak
support the document offered. Where it mentioned gay support, it did
so in unusually broad terms. In its support for gay marriage, the
document offers a scant: “We oppose the Defense of Marriage Act and
all attempts to use this issue to divide us.”
Cindi Creager, Director of National
News at Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD),
commented on the group's blog that Democrats were simply being
cautious not to use language that could be exploited by anti-gay
forces.
Still, she called on the media to “hold
the parties accountable for clarifying positions rather than
tiptoeing around them with vague, linguistic maneuvering.”
Creager might have had a different
reaction to the document had she read Christie Keith's Gay-Baiting '08 on AfterElton.com where pundits and politicians discussed the
role of gay baiting in the 2008 presidential election. The story
highlighted the fact that gay fear mongering has lost much of its
punch since the 2004 election.
“I
think people are thinking about it, evolving on it and I don't think
it has the scare factor, culturally, that it had,” political
commentator and MSNBC The Chris Matthews Show
host Chris Matthews said. “You know, look at the Larry Craig story
– it was so sad that it made a lot people say, 'Wait a minute. If
you don't respect individuals, they're not going to respect
themselves.' And I think that's a very good conservative argument
for [gay] marriage.”
“I think the air
is substantially out of this balloon,” openly gay Congressman
Barney Frank said.
Feverish optimism
tied to a record number of GLBT people expected at the Democratic National Convention had fueled high hopes of greater inclusion in the
Democratic platform – making its hushed tones a bitter pill to
swallow. The National Stonewall Democrats announced they expect 358
gays & lesbians at the convention, making it the gayest ever.
Additionally, the gathering will include the appointment of Diego
Sanchez of AIDS Action, the first-ever transsexual committee
appointment.
A report by UNAIDS
claims the AIDS epidemic has stabilized, but at least one expert,
former UNAIDS epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani, disagrees.
On the blog
www.wisdomofwhores.com used to promote her book The Wisdom Of
Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS, she
questions the numbers published by the organization, calling them
“confusing.” Compiling reports from previous UNAIDS data, Pisani
estimates the report is off by nearly 1 million people.
The report was
released just days before an AIDS conference in Mexico opened to a
protest. Activists
at the conference staged the first International March Against Stigma,
to demand the end of discrimination against people living with HIV.
“Homophobia
– in all its forms – is one of the top barriers to ending this
epidemic, worldwide. The fight against the epidemic is entering a
new phase, and if governments and NGOs and international
organizations like my own do not take up the fight for gay rights,
and the rights of all people with diverse sexuality, we will not end
AIDS,” said Peter Piot, a UNAIDS founding director.
The
conference started with the remarks of a 12-year-old HIV-positive
Honduran girl – Keren Dunaway Gonzalez. Gonzalez said HIV-positive children like herself in Latin America need help with medicines and acceptance in schools. She received a standing ovation that lasted
long after she left the stage.
Discrimination
against HIV-positive people like Gonzalez is increasing. Some
countries have criminalized the disease. In India sufferers
routinely lose their jobs, are denied treatment in hospitals and
children are thrown out of schools. An
Indian couple, after finding out they were infected as well as one of
their children, decided to poison the children and commit suicide by
hanging themselves from a ceiling fan.
And it
was our own Gay Entertainment Report that brought me news of a transgender woman and an openly gay man competing to work for Sean 'Diddy' Combs on VH1's I Want To Work For Diddy.
That's enough from me for this week.
Walter Weeks is a writer for On Top
Magazine and can be reached at ww@ontopmag.com.
The Gay Slant pops in most Saturdays at On Top Magazine.