Editorial

The brilliant production of “Cabaret” now playing at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater shines a light on some striking parallels between the rise of fascism in pre-WWII Germany and our current socio-political climate.

In 1930, Germany was a nation on edge in many ways that feel uncannily familiar. As Germans struggled with an historic economic downturn and a loss of world standing – largely the consequences of military aggression – the nation’s society moved further to the edges.

Conservative judicial activists on the U.S. Supreme Court opened a can of worms in January when they lifted a ban on political spending by corporations. But when Target used the Court’s newly created First Amendment freedom to bait an election in Minnesota, the big retailer ended up hooking itself.

Target contributed $150,000 to a right-wing group that used some of the money to support Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, a staunchly anti-gay, anti-choice Republican who is a fan of a ministry that has called for the execution of homosexuals. All the work Target has done to cultivate a progressive brand image, including maintaining perfect workplace policies for LGBT employees, was seriously undermined by that contribution.

A U.S. district court judge in Massachusetts ruled on July 9 that a section of the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. This is a welcome development for married same-sex couples in that state, but its impact on same-sex marriages elsewhere is unclear.

To become federal law, the decision first would have to survive an appeal at the federal circuit court level. From there, the case would go to the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s nearly impossible to imagine the current justices supporting the decision, which states that the federal marriage ban violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause and interferes with states’ rights to establish their own marriage laws.

LGBT people in Wisconsin have a lot to be proud of.

Our state was the first in the nation to ban anti-gay employment discrimination (1982) and the first to elect an out gay or lesbian non-incumbent (Tammy Baldwin) to Congress.

The Wisconsin GOP  has elected the most extremist candidates in memory.  Don’t expect any of them to support basic LGBT rights, let alone equality.

Even during normal election years, Republican primary candidates are hostage to the approval of far-right groups such as Wisconsin Family Action, whose adherents vote in huge numbers. This year, Republican candidates were driven even further to the right by the seething Tea Party movement.

A recent analysis of California’s Proposition 8 campaign turns the conventional wisdom about that 2008 electoral disaster on its head. Detailed and comprehensive, the report contains valuable insights for equality activists in Wisconsin and elsewhere in their upcoming battles at the ballot box.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Mentoring Project looked at 10,000 pages of unreleased data from the campaign that overturned same-sex marriage in the Golden Gate state. Perhaps the most startling finding was that the margin of loss was much wider than reported – about one million votes. It turned out that a great many people who voted “no” on the referendum mistakenly believed they were voting against same-sex marriage, not for it.

Bolstered by great headline acts and decent weather, Milwaukee’s PrideFest achieved another year of record-breaking attendance. Except for an uncomfortably long delay in bringing opening night headliner Kathy Griffin onstage, the event ran smoothly – no small feat given that it’s organized and staffed entirely by volunteers.

PrideFest also deserves praise for including so many LGBT performers in its line-up. Pride festivals provide these entertainers an essential way of connecting with old fans and gaining new ones, yet too many such events, including Chicago’s, overlook them.

Marquette University ended an exhaustive two-year search for a new dean of its college of arts and sciences in April, when officials offered the position to out lesbian scholar Jodi O’Brien. The search committee interviewed her several times, reviewed her academic record and decided she was the best candidate for the job.

But shortly after O’Brien accepted Marquette’s offer, university president Robert A. Wild abruptly withdrew it, making vague references to writings she’d published in peer-reviewed academic journals about lesbian sex and same-sex marriage. These writings, already well-known to the search committee, were deemed incompatible with Marquette’s Roman Catholic mission.

On Sept. 19, AIDS Walk Wisconsin, the state’s largest AIDS fundraiser, returns to the Summerfest grounds. We urge you to become involved.

AIDS is not a gay disease but it continues to disproportionately impact our community. Gay and bisexual men in the United States are diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, at 44 times the rate of straight men. Still, the LGBT community has become increasingly apathetic toward the ongoing epidemic. The disconnect is generally attributed to the lack of experience that young people have had with the disease and to the improved treatments that have made HIV a largely manageable condition.

LGBT-rights advocates were outraged when Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen decided in August 2009 not to defend the state in a lawsuit over the domestic partner law. Van Hollen’s unusual move forced Gov. Jim Doyle to hire outside counsel to defend the law, forcing taxpayers to pay for a job that Van Hollen was elected and paid to do.

But now advocates are harshly criticizing the U.S. Justice Department for defending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in a lawsuit brought by Log Cabin Republicans in California. It is the duty of the White House to implement and enforce laws passed by Congress, just as it is Van Hollen’s obligation to defend laws passed by the Legislature.

If there was ever any doubt that Republican Scott Walker would work to rescind the state’s domestic partner registry if elected governor, he erased it during a June 11 appearance before the Milwaukee Press Club. Walker also said that as governor he’d oppose the employee benefits that domestic partners of state workers became eligible for early this year.

Walker’s position is not surprising. As Milwaukee County executive, he vetoed a measure approved by county supervisors to extend partner benefits to county workers. To justify this act of inequality, he inflated the estimated cost of the measure to nearly 20 times what the City of Milwaukee spends on partner benefits, even though the county has a workforce that is 40 percent smaller than the county’s.

The state Legislature missed at least two opportunities to pass important common-sense laws. Proposals to legalize medical marijuana and to empower victims of pedophiles to sue their abusers never made it to either the Senate or Assembly floors. Clearly election-year cowardice among Democratic leaders played a role in both sins of omission.

There is more than enough evidence showing that marijuana helps chronically ill patients, including those with HIV/AIDS and those struggling with the debilitating effects of chemotherapy. Denying them access to life-enhancing therapy is the worst sort of government intrusion into both health care and the private lives of citizens.