11/04/2009
Mixner: 'Call This Campaign Against Us What it is — Gay Apartheid'
David Mixner reacts to the unfortunate events in Maine:
"Refuse to allow any of our fellow Americans, President Obama or our
allies to view this as a political issue who time hasn't quite come.
America is in the process of creating a system of Gay Apartheid. We
will not quietly sit and accept it. All over the place, this nation is
creating one set of laws for LGBT Americans and another set for all
other Americans. That is the classic definition of Apartheid. Either
our political allies are for Gay Apartheid or against it. If they are
against it, they must fight with us and no longer duck like President
Obama did in Maine and Washington. There is no half way in fighting
Apartheid...
...President Obama standing on the sidelines in Maine and Washington was appalling. The failure of our national organizations and leaders to demand his involvement was equally appalling. The outrageous act of the Democratic National Committee sending an email into Maine asking Maine Democrats to call into "NEW JERSEY" instead of to support the fight against bigotry was unbelievable. No one gets to sit on the sidelines in an epic battle against apartheid and no one gets a free pass. If you want our support, you have to earn it. We are way beyond where we will accept a little bit in 2009, some in 2010 and maybe more in the second term. Does anyone think after yesterday election results and the upcoming 2010 election, Obama has the ability to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and "DOMA" next year? Does anyone really believe we haven't already missed a historic opportunity in the first 10 months of this year? Only a courageous fighting President and Congress can now help turn us this around and that we have not seen so far. Enough."
More on his blog...
Posted 9:45 AM EST by Andy Towle in David Mixner, Gay Marriage, Maine, News | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
I'm glad Obama wasn't involved in the Maine fight -- we would have lost by a GREATER margin.
Posted by: Gregoire | Nov 4, 2009 9:55:17 AM
Bravo. another way to say it simply, is "separate but equal" has already been deemed unconstitutional. i don't know why this point isn't made more.
again, i invite everyone to move to Connecticut. we have legal gay marriage and there have been ZERO problems with the law that i have heard of.
my condolences and support to all believers in equality throughout the country, and a raised clenched fist and a raised middle finger from the other hand to everyone else.
Posted by: casey | Nov 4, 2009 9:57:52 AM
This guy is disgusting and his racism is quite apparent. Blaming Obama and yesterday claiming that the non-white vote would push the "Yes" vote over the top in a 98% white state instead of blaming the voters and the front groups and having the AUDACITY to call this apartheid. I suggest Mr. Mixner go to the nearest library and read up on what apartheid actually did to black South Africans.
I'm heartbroken about the Maine results, but to compare our marriage obsticles - which are VERY real - to apartheid is insensitive and downright insulting.
Posted by: another matt | Nov 4, 2009 10:02:38 AM
Civil rights is never an issue that should be left to the mob to decide.
Posted by: MT | Nov 4, 2009 10:03:41 AM
Mixner is right on target. We've got to stop the soft sell ads and be blunt and to the point. Of course, the other side will say this is offensive, blah, blah, blah and try to get us to shut up. But when you start calling people out for their shameful behaviour it starts to sink in. And this doesn't apply just to gay rights, it applies to all progressive causes. We need to get our heads out of our collective asses and wake up. We need more David Mixners and Alan Graysons. Clearly the I'm a helpless wimp, please please please give me a small bit of human dignity message isn't working.
Posted by: Mike | Nov 4, 2009 10:04:02 AM
If anyone really wants to get even MORE depressed, have a gander at the comments after the Bangor Daily News article on the vote... lots of bigotry, along with lots of bad spelling and appalling grammar (anyone know of a reputable study of education level as a factor for support for gay rights?)
This morning, at the gym (I know, SO gay), I was listening to a bunch of straight guys shooting the breeze and out of nowhere felt a terrible pang of inferiority. I haven't felt that way so viscerally since sixth grade. Funny how putting our rights up to popular vote, and getting beaten by bullies, can take me all the way back to those terrifying days of physical abuse and ridicule...
Posted by: JesryPo | Nov 4, 2009 10:07:10 AM
I been seething after our defeat in Virginia so many years ago during the Bush hysteria of Marriage Amendments.....this just makes me pissed off more than ever.
Especially when I picture that cow Maggie G. in her Layne Bryant outfit with her Costcutters haircut gloating over our loss handed to us on their platform of lies and fear.
I remember when I was working the polls on election day in Virginia during our marriage battle several years ago. We had so many vile and ignorant people treating us with disdain while we were passing out our poll flyers.
One old lady purposely came out of the poll, walked up to me to tell me she had voted against us and she was proud of it. By this time, I had enough of the abuse and told her: "It's OK you old coot. You are going to die soon anyway." The look on her face was priceless and she called us fags. I said "good one, did you learn that in church or has that word always been part of your vocabulary?"
Of course she wanted names and she was going to report me. I think I told her to f*** off, I was a volunteer so go ahead and report me. Who you gonna call - Ghostbusters? I remember someone saying.
The picture of her with her bony fingers dialing her 1957 rotary phone to call the election board to report me still makes me laugh. I wonder if she is dead yet? lol
Posted by: Beef and Fur | Nov 4, 2009 10:11:06 AM
His comparison to apartheid is a joke, sorry—gay people of all colors are never going to make inroads with straight people of color by screaming, "But you're BLACK!" all the time.
Is there any way for us to simply argue we want our rights without using race as a crutch? If not, we will still win. But it will take longer.
In theory I agree with Mixner that sitting quietly does nothing. However, when we can't rally blue states to support us (though it's been really close), how can we expect our leaders to confidently do so? Then they lose power and people who would actively be against us win power...and then what?
We have to be calculating, we have to put the emotion aside or rather channel it into cunning and we need to approach the issue as a fixable political problem.
Posted by: Matthew Rettenmund | Nov 4, 2009 10:16:16 AM
This is apartheid. I have no doubt in my mind that the wingnuts would go further than marriage equality if they thought they could get away with it - and if we continue to be wimps about it and shy away from using terms which have strong emotional connotations, we will never make our point! People don't listen to soft sell messages. You have to be blunt and direct to make your point. I think the results in California and now Maine clearly make the point. Marriage equality has nothing to do with a school curriculum - but apparently the fact it was a lie didn't matter. We're being shy about telling the fricken' truth just because we don't want to be confrontational? Just because we don't want to offend anyone? The people we're going to offend are our enemies; they are trying to take away our rights. Are we collectively insane or what?
Posted by: Mike | Nov 4, 2009 10:23:24 AM
Another Matt,
You sound like the homophobic blacks who call our valid comparisons to the black Civil Rights movement a racist insult.
This is Gay Apartheid. We are being forced to accept separate and unequal status because of haterosexual mob mentality (euphemistically called "Democracy").
Enough of the soft sell. As far as I'm concerned, the war against homophobia is merely another battle in the War on Terror. Christian terrorists use the ballots like Muslim terrorists use bombs: as a hate crime against anyone outside of who they consider to be worthy of protection under the law or life itself. And don't think the Christians will stop at banning gay marriage.
Maggie Gallagher belongs in Gitmo. When she and her ilk are being waterboarded on a daily basis, that's justice.
Posted by: Attmay | Nov 4, 2009 10:23:45 AM
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Mixner. But I also think that we queers (yes, I choose to take a term historically used against us and use it as a sword when referring to me and my LGBT brothers and sisters) are partially to blame as well. As a movement generally, we have been way too complacent, always trying to work within the system. This is why civil disobedience on a massive scale is now our only logical course of action. It worked for the suffragettes and for African Americans. It's our time to stand up and fight!! If we need to be hosed down from the steps of state and federal buildings nationwide, then so be it!
"By any means necessary"!--Malcolm X.
Posted by: Wren | Nov 4, 2009 10:24:26 AM
To the panty wadders above: At least he is standing up for you. Maybe that anger you have could be redirected into action?
From Merriam Webster:
Main Entry: apart·heid
Pronunciation: \ə-ˈpär-ˌtāt, -ˌtīt\
Function: noun
Etymology: Afrikaans, from apart apart + -heid -hood
Date: 1947
1 : racial segregation; specifically : a former policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa
2 : separation, segregation
Posted by: Beef and Fur | Nov 4, 2009 10:24:47 AM
Maine just legislated AGAINST their own children, some of whom will be gay and are now officially second-class citizens of your state.
Did any of the No on 1 ads take that tenor? Most of the arguments I saw 'why is my marraige any of your business'? Guess what, Christian batshits make your marraige their business.
The message should have been amended to include -- a vote YES is a vote to ensure your own children discrimination in the future.
If there's a lesson to be learned, it's that you have to get dirty and blunt in your rhetoric. That part I do agree with.
Posted by: Gregoire | Nov 4, 2009 10:30:21 AM
@anothermatt
i RARELY respond to attacking self absorbed post, but if you haven't the vocabulary or the rational ability to understand that the word apartheid is not bound by color but by law, unlike the term jim crow, perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to type.
we are living in an age of nothing less than codified apartheid, and we,lgbti, are the inferior class.
saying so is not an attack on obama, or on people of color in general.
i personally do not need to be approved of, but i will not settle quietly for living under a separate set of laws. there is no color line on this issue, obviously, as there are lily white bigots and a sizable diversely ethnic glbti population, many of whom are getting the worst of both worlds.
it is discrimination when my neighbor or my boss treats me badly because of my orientation. when that mistreatment is codified into law, it is apartheid.
CALL IT WHAT IT IS...APARTHEID
Posted by: jack | Nov 4, 2009 10:31:41 AM
I laugh at people blaming Obama on this one. Obama CANNOT, i repeat CANNOT get people to vote for or against gay marriage, that is changed by gays interacting with these straight ignorant people or by them dying off for the younger generation.
He couldn't even get the democratic governors elected, how do you think he can for gay marriage?
anyways, the white gays CANNOT blame non-whites for maine loss, since non-whites are NOT up to 6% of the population. did gay voters go out and vote?
Posted by: johnosahon | Nov 4, 2009 10:37:11 AM
I totally agree with Mixner.. And "Another Matt"...FU. Am tired of that "I'm black before I'm gay crap." It's "separate but (not) equal." But in ONE word that people can understand and make a connection, it is gay"aparthied."It's a good comparison. Just like the comparison to civil rights struggles in the 60s in many, many ways. Perhaps NOT ALL WAYS, but many. And that's the point. Why spend your time advocating the African-American martyr card? Why is criticism of Obama from gays/lesbians about his tepid support of (and tangible progress for) gay rights automatically racism? It's not about you and your perceived slights. It's about all of us.
Posted by: Will | Nov 4, 2009 10:37:13 AM
Call it what you want.....but realize that gay people in the majority of states in the USA are second-class citizens. You pay your taxes. You contribute to your society. Stand up, be proud and demand equal rights. Mobilize. Act-Up. Stop being content saying that you are making progress, slowly but surely. How long are you going to wait? This is just ridiculous in 2009.
Posted by: excy | Nov 4, 2009 10:51:40 AM
I agree with GREGOIRE. We have to get straights where they live and there is no more potent way than to frame the discussion about their kids and grandkids. Most people now know someone with a gay child or nephew or granddaughter---it's getting harder and harder for straights to think "never in my family"
Posted by: Christopher | Nov 4, 2009 10:52:05 AM
Yeah, right, Big Guy. You really think the phrase "GAY APARTHEID" is a winner?
Show me one goddamn scenario in which that phrase wins hearts, changes minds or captures the fancy of the media?
Sheesh. What a dumb cluck you can be...
Posted by: Tom H. | Nov 4, 2009 10:53:53 AM
We can absolutely blame the political machine which is currently the democratic party! It never acts, just talks constantly about how (a) America isn't ready (see Rep Casey, PA), (b) Civil Unions are just dandy (see the President), or (c) "we have no comment on this issue" (the US AG). We get no support from the powers-that-be. What a waste.
Posted by: DR | Nov 4, 2009 11:04:58 AM
"I laugh at people blaming Obama on this one."
Why? His "god is in the mix" crap was used in the pro-Prop H8 robocalls, and while he may claim to have disapproved, it's not like he did anything to stop it. There was nothing to stop him from condemning this, but he was too busy campaigning for the Democrat in VA who just lost. And he claimed to be a "fierce advocate" for us, when in practice he is neither.
Pointing out his monumental shortcomings has nothing to do with the color of his skin. It's all about the content of his character. It is wanting. Obama is not all black people and all black people are not Obama. But gays are all races and creeds, and an attack on them is an attack on all of them.
Obama had no problem disregarding the federal laws against medicinal marijuana (which I think should be legal and totally unregulated, as it is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco). But where our rights under the law are concerned? His advocacy is about as fierce as an injured kitten.
Boycott Maine. And boycott the Democrat Party. They're a cheap date to us. A few platitudes and no action, except a hate crimes bill that will not deter hate crimes and had to be attached to a military spending bill. And yes, I want moderate and libertarian Republicans in office and will work to see them get there. If the GOP sends a bigot I'll vote Libertarian. And though it is a false dichotomy, I'll take an honest bigot over a lying "fierce advocate" any day of the week. At least I wouldn't be paying as much in taxes (and have more money to give to gay rights organizations and gay-owned businesses) and will have the right to bear arms to defend myself from people like that.
Posted by: Attmay | Nov 4, 2009 11:06:56 AM
It has become very apparent that when voters are given a democratic voice to uphold or defeat gay "marriage" rights there really is no difference in the US between church-and-state. The religious right will use every non-Christian ploy and lie in their arsenal to keep us with second-class citizen rights each and every time. I'm especially tired of what the Mormon and Catholic churce hierarchy has done to efforts to expand our rights in California and, now, Maine. I'm amazed these non-taxed religious institutions continue to get away with their blatant political activity. Well, if we can't get this President on our side in such issues, I guess we have no chance thinking the IRS might play along, too. And, do we REALLY think we have a chance with the federal repeals of DOMA and DADT and the passage of ENDA when this administration and its Democratic majority in both houses can't even get a health care reform bill passed? I'm in agreement with David Mixner's concern. Like most opportunities in life, timing can be everything. It's possible the opportunity for passage of federal LGBT initiatives has come and gone. I hate being a defeatist but this morning I'm really feeling screwed over by my government and fellow citizens. It's time our national organizations put real pressure on the Obama administration to act on our behalf instead of GLBT leaders simply attending White House cocktail parties and hearing nice platitudes about the "fierce advocacy" for our causes. It appears to be alot of BS so far. And, until "our side" -- LGBT organizations and politicians -- get serious, they don't need to keep asking me to donate to their causes. I'm over it -- and them -- for now. Get real folks!!
Posted by: Rob | Nov 4, 2009 11:13:36 AM
here's what a lot of you screaming "apartheid" don't realize. that term - outside of its strict dictionary definition - carries the weight of decades of oppression the likes of which we as gays will probably never feel here in the US. blacks in South Africa were LITERALLY separated from whites and forced to live in horrid conditions and denied WAY more basic rights than marriage. so all i suggest is to have a little sensitivity - use the word if you want, but understand if someone takes offense.
as someone who is mixed race and living in California, i heard an awful lot last year about how the Blacks caused the success of Prop 8. and i have to say that i find it interesting that now people are so quick to blame Obama for the success of Question 1.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more lily-white state than Maine, and THEY are the ones that voted, not Obama. if any of you think that Obama coming out and encouraging a No vote on 1 would have swung the vote in our favor are delusional. maybe if the Pope had done so, considering the preponderance of Catholics in Maine, there would have been a difference. but alas, the only ones that can really be held at fault are the electorate themselves. stop your scapegoating.
Posted by: buzz | Nov 4, 2009 11:13:49 AM
Every time the "machine" calls or writes you for money, call them back and ask how they are working to bring equality to our laws. "Hey, I just received this mailer and before I send it back, I wanted to ask, are you a co-sponsor of ENDA? Repeal of DOMA and DADT?" Not an explicit quid-pro-quo, but make the connection.
Tell them your story so the person on the other end of the line has an emotional reason to listen and take it to heart. The laws should be rational, of course, but the people making them are driven by emotion. Work it!
I'm working on Sen. Patty Murray, who voted for DOMA and I'm trying to talk live to her staffer who's "handling that issue." It takes repeated phone calls to get anyone live, but it's worth it.
Posted by: David R. | Nov 4, 2009 11:18:40 AM
A state that's 98% white votes to ban same-sex marriage. And who do they blame?
Obama.
Unbelievable. And the comparison to civil rights is all the more insulting because it is being uttered by people who I suspect would've supported, or at least quietly condone, apartheid had they lived in South Africa at the time. Do I have a beam into their souls to prove it definitively?
No.
But can anyone look at all the racist comments posted here whenever there's any story about Africa and tell me - with confidence - that does not at least raise some doubts about how white American gays themselves would have voted if presented with a ballot measure on overturning apartheid?
Posted by: John | Nov 4, 2009 11:38:53 AM