Community News Bulletin - 1/19/99
The GAY ASIAN MEN'S NETWORK cordially invites YOU to
"DEBUT!"
Our Semi-formal WinterBall
www.gamnet.org/
Imagine...hors d'oeuvres! Professional DJ's! Peformances!
And best of all...DANCING...DANCING...DANCING!
When: January 29, 1999 (8 p.m. - 1 a.m.)
Where: Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara (2700 Mission College Blvd.)
Cost: $20 advance/ $25 at door
Attire: Suit and tie
To purchase advance tickets or for more information, contact:
Lee L., SBQA's Social Chair, at llee@dnai.com!
GVA: gva888@aol.com or tcdo@pacbell.net (408.302.6964) for tickets.
The Gay Asian Men's Network (www.gamnet.org) is a collaboration between
Gay Vietnamese Alliance (GVA), Kaibaigan at Pamilya (K&P), and South Bay
Queer Asians (SBQA).
bcc: 127 GAPA Subscribers, Organization
San Francisco Examiner, Monday, January 25, 1999
Openly gay officialdom
Only 150 elected officials nationwide make no secret of their homosexuality
By Carol Ness
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
<http://www,examiner.com/990125/0125gay.shtml>
In San Francisco, openly gay people have been running for office since drag
impresario Jose Sarria took a shot at the Board of Supervisors in 1961 --
and
won 5,000 votes. And they've been winning since Harvey Milk captured a
historic seat on the board in 1977.
In The City alone there are at least six openly gay or lesbian officials
holding elective office, three of whom serve on the Board of Supervisors.
So it may come as a surprise here that there are still only 150 openly gay
and lesbian officials among more than 455,000 men and women holding elective
office -- from dogcatcher on up through Congress -- in the United States.
Twenty-six states still have none. Zero.
"One could ask, why so few? But the question could also be, why so many?
Especially given the large percentage of the voting public who hold deep
anti-gay sentiments," says Ken Yeager, a gay man who sits on the San
Jose/Evergreen Community College board and, as political science professor
at San Jose State University, has just completed the first-ever survey of
gay elected officials in the country.
Yeager surveyed the 124 gay men and lesbians who held office in 1997 and,
based on responses from 94 of them (76 percent), found they are vastly more
liberal than the general public, their straight colleagues and even other
gays and lesbians.
Two-thirds are men, 93 percent are Democrats, 93 percent are white and most
are baby boomers who were elected since 1994, when the gay rights movement
breached mainstream society big-time.
Of the total, 64 percent hold city or county offices or judgeships, 16
percent are on school or college boards, 18 percent serve at the state level
and two are in Congress.
A key finding contradicts a stereotype Yeager believes the public holds
about gay candidates: that they are interested only in the issue of gay
rights.
Local development and infrastructure issues, plus education, topped the list
of their legislative priorities. Nondiscrimination issues placed third, in a
virtual tie with housing and neighborhood concerns and health. Tax reform
and public safety rounded out the list.
"It is apparent from these responses that gay and lesbian officeholders are
concerned about quality-of-life issues and education. In this regard, they
are very much in step with the general public," wrote Yeager.
Unlike recent surveys of women officeholders, which showed they conduct
business differently than their male counterparts, Yeager's survey didn't
attempt to measure the impact gay elected officials may be having on
legislation or on the political process.
"This is a start to look at this in an academic way," he said. "I didn't
have the means to do that, but I hope it generates further research so we
can answer those questions."
Instead, Yeager focused on who the gay officeholders are and how they got
there.
He amplifies on his statistical survey with interviews with 14, including
San Francisco Assemblywoman Carole Migden, which he has compiled in a new
Haworth Press book, "Trailblazers: Profiles of America's Gay and Lesbian
Officials."
Yeager, who worked for Rep. Don Edwards, D-San Jose, and then co-founded
BAYMEC (Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee) in 1984 to help elect gays
in the South Bay, said he took on the project for two reasons.
"As an elected official myself, I knew there was very little information
about us," he said. "When I ran for office, I was sort of on my own. I knew
if it was true for me, it was true for others."
And then there's the fact that openly gay and lesbian people are an
"incredibly small minority of people who have been able to get elected. You
couldn't find a group more underrepresented in our democracy," he said. "I
don't think even gays and lesbians understand."
Among his findings:
Most of those surveyed weren't elected from overwhelmingly gay districts.
Two-thirds said their district was 10 percent gay or less.
Eighty-three percent got more than 20 percent of the money for their first
campaign from the gay community; with 35 percent getting more than 40
percent.
But in their last campaign, financial reliance on the gay community dropped,
showing that an incumbent gay has an easier time fund-raising among
straights.
Though all those surveyed were openly gay, exactly how out they were as
candidates varied wildly.
A quarter kept it quiet enough that the public probably didn't know, Yeager
concluded.
Another third said they were out but the media never reported it and they
didn't say so in their campaign
literature. So it's hard to know what the voters thought.
For the largest group -- 39 percent -- the public likely knew because both
they and the media made a point of it.
Two-thirds didn't come under anti-gay attack in their first run for office.
But the rest did -- either "evident but not vicious" or "full-blown"
attacks.
Seventy percent consider themselves progressive or liberal -- compared with
49 percent of gay and lesbians voters questioned in a 1992 exit poll and 21
percent of straights in a 1996 survey.
Another 25 percent say they are moderate, and only 2 percent say they are
conservative.
They overwhelmingly support abortion rights, affirmative action, labor
unions, same-sex marriage and campaign reform. And three-quarters oppose the
death penalty.
More than half spend a tiny amount of their time -- less than 5 percent a
month -- on gay issues.
Yeager will hold a reading at 7:30 p.m. Monday at a Different Light
bookstore in the Castro.