Opinion

40 years ago

In 1971, gay people first marched in a public event in Milwaukee. It wasn’t a Pride parade, though. It was an anti-war march sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. About 30 members of an organization called the Gay Liberation Front participated, hoisting a “Gay Liberation” banner all along the route of the march.

The Gay Liberation Front was one of two gay groups founded the year before. The other group called itself the Gay Liberation Organization. Because GLF was anti-war and more leftist-oriented and the two groups were often confused, members of GLO, who wanted to focus only on gay issues, renamed their group the Gay People’s Union. They published GPU News (until 1981) and founded the clinic that continues to function today as the BESTD Clinic.

Wisconsin has received worldwide attention over the massive protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s so-called “Budget Repair Bill.” Although its name suggests the bill is budget-related, the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau found many elements are nothing more than sweeping policy changes that are not related to the budget at all.

The item receiving the most attention is Walker’s attempt to essentially eliminate 50 years of collective bargaining rights for public employees. The LGBT community has had a steady friend in Wisconsin’s labor movement and it should take a stand for labor in its hour of need.

What is this obsession that religious zealots and anti-gay bigots have with sex and sex acts?

The latest silliness struck with news that the United Methodist Church is putting a woman minister in Wisconsin on trial for being a “self-avowed practicing homosexual.”

Now that Republicans control the entire state government, one would naturally expect a different policy direction in Wisconsin. But looking at the extreme views of the conservatives now in charge should give the LGBT community and the state in general some concern about how far to the right that new direction might swing.

Many of us already know about the extreme right-wing positions of legislators such as Leah Vukmir, Glenn Grothman and Terry Moulton. They have earned some of the worst anti-equality records in the Legislature. Less well known is how extreme many of the freshmen lawmakers are on social issues.

Was Mike Huckabee lobbing a subtle insult at his potential president rivals or just pandering to his far-right evangelical base when he slammed Natalie Portman on Fox News?

The former Arkansas governor and avowed evangelical attacked the Academy Award-winning actress for having a child out of wedlock and allegedly glamorizing it. Yet he’s been silent on the subject of Bristol Palin’s high-profile out-of-wedlock baby as well as the multiple extra-marital affairs and divorces of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

State Rep. Jeff Stone, R-Greendale, who is running for Milwaukee County Executive in the Feb. 15 primary, is often referred to as a “moderate.” But his voting record clearly suggests otherwise.

Often when a Republican is referred to as a “moderate,” it means that he or she is fairly conservative fiscally but more progressive on hot-button social issues, such as equality and reproductive freedom. This is not the case when it comes to Jeff Stone. He has repeatedly used his votes in the Legislature to attack marriage equality, including votes for the constitutional amendment that enshrined discrimination in our state’s constitution. He also voted against the domestic partnership registry established in 2009.

I got together with friends recently and watched “Milk,” Gus Van Sant’s movie about the life and death of gay pioneer Harvey Milk. For me it was the second viewing of the film, and it was just as emotional as the first time.

I came out and became politically active in the mid-1970s. Along with members of the Gay Community and Feminist Center at UW-Milwaukee, I helped organize fundraisers to defend the Dade County, Fla., gay rights ordinance from Anita Bryant’s repeal campaign and to defeat the Briggs Initiative in California, which would have prohibited gays and lesbians from working as teachers.

The attack on public workers’ collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and the defunding of Planned Parenthood by Congress should be opposed by all LGBT people of conscience.

Over the past 10 years, Republicans (with help from some Democrats) created big deficits through their unfunded, open-ended attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan and through huge tax cuts for the wealthy. The budget crisis today was provoked by conservatives who are now using it as a pretext to wipe out their political and ideological opponents.

Wisconsin just came out of a very high-profile and contentious election cycle. The public may have some election fatigue, but we should not lose sight of the important races this spring, including the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The conservative candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court is incumbent Justice David Prosser. He is part of a slim conservative majority on the increasingly contentious high court. Some have raised serious concerns regarding what appears to be an increased level of partisanship from Prosser leading up to this election.

A recent New York Times headline, citing new Census statistics, declared: “Parenting by Gays More Common in the South.”

The article said that child rearing among same-sex couples is more common in the South than other regions. In addition, black and Latino same-sex couples are twice as likely as whites to be raising children.

For years equality advocates have eschewed rather than chewed Domino’s pizza due to the anti-gay political contributions made by its founder and former CEO Tom Monaghan. But the radical conservative is no longer involved in the company’s operations.