Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 12:14:07 -0700 From: jeff@aa.net (Jeff Harris) Subject: Fingerpointing, Denial & Real Damage: The Anti-Gay Presidential Ads Permission to distribute and publish with full credit _____________________________________________________ Finger-pointing, Denial & Real Damage: The Anti-Gay Presidential Ads Jeff Harris The Human Rights Campaign has on its web page a link to a justifiably scathing attack of Bob Dole's anti-gay ad. It was posted within a few hours of the ads release. Yet 24 hours after the flap over the Clinton/Gore anti-gay ad began, the HRC has posted nothing to criticize the ad that boasts about President Clinton signing DOMA, "President Clinton has fought for our values and America is better for it." The HRC is a non partisan organization that has endorsed Bill Clinton for re-election. Conversely, Rich Tafel and the Log Cabin Republicans, have been silent about Bob Dole's anti-gay ads, were quick to attack Bill Clinton. "Clinton has flip-flopped on gay issues once again." Bob Dole, whose campaign returned a thousand dollar contribution to the gay Republicans has even accused Clinton of hypocrisy. "This is a president who signed the Defense of Marriage Act in the middle of the night so it wouldn't be news, but now he does paid advertising to promote it," said Dole spokesman Gary Koops. According an Associated Press story, "Clinton campaign spokesman Don Foley said the ad was a response to a Dole spot released last week, blaming Clinton for a national "moral crisis". The ad was running on the self described Christian radio stations on which Dole advertised." "Republicans went on the air last week with a brutal personal attack on the president and thought they could get away with it," Foley said. "This will set the record straight." The Clinton campaign's gay outreach has tried to use our most reliable news sources and opinion writers to tell a different story to gay Americans. Bill Stosine reported, "I received a call this afternoon from Paul Yandura, Director of Lesbian and Gay Outreach at the Clinton campaign, saying that the ad was unauthorized and will be pulled from air play immediately. He said that he and Richard Socarides are investigating this mix-up with the company the Clinton campaign works with on radio ads and had they known about it in advance it would never have gone out. They are doing their best to correct this mistake." What do the conflicting stories distributed by the Clinton campaign mean? Was the ad unauthorized and is it really under investigation? Or is it just part of the strategy to answer Bob Dole's anti-gay ad by saying Bill Clinton is a demagogue too? The only things that are certain is the Clinton campaign broadcast the ad and it is providing different messages: one for gay Americans, one for religious political extremists and another for the mainstream press. These ads from both Clinton and Dole imply that anti-gay legislation like DOMA is somehow a benefit to the values of non-gay Americans. They reinforce dangerous beliefs that gay Americans are somehow less important than other Americans, less deserving of basic rights. By suggesting gays are less than equal, they make it easier to for gay bashers to beat us and other demagogues to promote yet more ignorance and even violence. It is easier to bash people whom the President has said is the deserving target of legislation denying them basic freedom, like the freedom to marry. I have come to expect this kind of dehumanizing hateful message from most Republicans and from Southern Democrats like Robert Byrd and Sam Nunn. Conservative Democrats and the GOP make no effort to hide their bigotry. Bill Clinton is different. He has asked for votes and contributions from gay organization. For him to use demagoguery is a betrayal of the trust he has asked us to give him. The biggest betrayal of all is not from Bill Clinton but from the national gay organizations like HRC and Log Cabin Republicans. Gay Republicans and the Human Rights Campaign seem to be in deep denial about the real positions of the candidates they have endorsed. Neither group has demanded accountability from the candidates they have endorsed. They even seem to place loyalty to the politicians they endorse ahead of the their constituency and stated purpose. We all acknowledge that working with politicians can help advance our cause. Yet support for any politician should never come before it. It's time for both groups to get a grip on reality and stand up to the anti-gay demagoguery in both parties. .