Not Out of the Woods Yet

With Pride approaching so quickly, it is easy to get caught up in the euphoria that has resulted from an unprecedented and unpredicted series of victories affecting the LGBT community.  The discriminatory ban on same-sex marriage is falling one state at a time like poorly mounted tiles off a wall.  Just this past week Oregon and Pennsylvania became the 18^th and 19^th states, respectively, to hop on the road to equality. Remember when there only five?  More states are in limbo because of legal challenges that are in process that may also add to the totals. 

Forty-four percent of Americans now live in a state that allows same-sex marriage. A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted in March show that nearly 3 out of 5 Americans support the right of gays and lesbians to tie the knot.  All in all, North Dakota remains as the sole state where no challenge to their ban has taken place. 

On top of that, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that legally married same-sex couples cannot be denied the federal benefits afforded heterosexual married couples.

Locally, the recent passage of the Fairness for All Marylanders Act, derided by opponents as “the bathroom bill,” is another reason to celebrate after years of failure.  A signature drive is underway to petition the law to referendum in November, but my gut is telling me it will fail by either the inability to collect the requisite number of signatures or that it will likely lose at the ballot box.

This past year we’ve witnessed history in the world of sports whereby Jason Collins became the first openly gay man to play in a major North American sport league (pro basketball) while still active, and Michael Sam became the first openly gay player to be drafted in the National Football League. 

With the screening on HBO of Larry Kramer’s powerful drama The Normal Heart, we got a glimpse of how our government that is supposed to be “of the people, by the people, for the people” based on Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address turned a blind eye on the developing AIDS crisis that began in the 1980s.  In direct contrast, we now have a president that has moved heaven and earth to help achieve equality for LGBT folks.  If only he had a Congress he could work with.

All this welcome news masks one underlying bit of reality: we’re not out of the woods yet.

More states have legalized same-sex marriage than have non-discrimination protections in place for LGBT workers.  The federal law—Employment Nondiscrimination Act or ENDA—has “celebrated” its 40^th anniversary of non-passage.  It’s been introduced in every Congress but the 109^th without success.  Prospects are dim for the near future that the bill would become law given the Republicans’ staunch opposition to passage despite the fact nearly three-fourths of Americans support nondiscrimination in the workplace for LGBT folks.  The GOP stubbornly continues to trail behind the shifting, progressive public attitudes—a development that weakens the Party nationally.

Despite the progress, old habits don’t die.  There are still haters out there who would physically harm LGBT people if given the chance or deprive them of their rights.  Bullying in schools continues to cause problems for LGBT students, especially among the transgender kids.  And families who rely on a strict interpretation of Scripture still throw their LGBT children out of their homes or make it so uncomfortable for them, the kids become runaways or homeless.

These problems continue to exist but they are more acute outside the U.S. where there is widespread homophobia leading to serious consequences.  We know of the the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 (previously called the “Kill the Gays bill” in the western media).  Instead of the death penalty for being gay, life imprisonment is the penalty.  Whew!

Elsewhere in Africa, new anti-gay laws have been proposed in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.  Anti-gay violence has been increasing across the continent.

In 2013 Russia received international criticism for enacting an anti-LGBT propaganda law, which purportedly was to prevent distribution of “non-traditional sexual relationships” ideas among minors.  This, too, has led to anti-gay violence around the country.

China is cracking down on gay activists.  Brunei has a law that allows death by stoning for gay sex.  And then there are the stringent laws in other Middle Eastern countries.

All this means is that as things get better in the U.S. they seem to be getting worse elsewhere.  Jay Michaelson of The Daily Beast opines that these nations are reflecting a backlash to the progress in the U.S. “Thanks to globalization, America’s current infatuation with all things gay has become more visible around the world,” he writes.  “As a result, many countries have become volatile mixtures of 1950s attitudes and 2010s media.  Children may watch Glee on their smartphones, but their parents still think gay people are pedophiles.”

And the AIDS crisis is far from over.  Though it’s no longer considered a “gay disease,” new infections from younger men who have sex with men are on the rise.

We can celebrate the steps we have taken as we move forward—as well we should—but we must understand that there is so much more work left to be done.  Clearly, we’re not out of the woods yet. 

Not by a long shot.

To Boycott or Nyet

The current attempt to boycott Russian vodka and/or the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in response to that country’s stringent anti-gaypropaganda law signed by President Putin in June, calls into question the effectiveness of such actions.  There have been successes in the past, but the current proposed boycotts will not succeed.

In 1977, homophobe and singer Anita Bryant effectively led a well-publicized effort through a group she headed “Save Our Children” to repeal an anti-discrimination ordinance in Dade County, Florida that covered sexual orientation.  The vote was a lopsided 69-31 margin. That outraged the gay community, and in response, activists organized a boycott of Florida orange juice because Bryant was a spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission. 

According to Eric Marcus, in his 2002 book, Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights, gay bars all over North America took screwdrivers off their drink menus and replaced them with the “Anita Bryant”, which was made with vodka and apple juice.  Sales and proceeds went to gay civil rights activists to help fund their fight against Bryant and her campaign.
The boycott didn’t kill off the orange juice industry, but its high-profiled effort brought awareness to the plight of lesbians and gays in Dade County.  Activist Harvey Milk pointed out, “The entire nation finally opened up and talked about Gay people.”   

It took twenty years, but Dade re-authored the anti-discrimination ordinance.  Opposition again tried to repeal it, but the voters of Dade County said “not this time” and backed it with 56 percent of the vote.

In this case, the boycott served as a vehicle to rally progressive groups and individuals to a cause, and it diminished Anita Bryant’s career.  And although the change in law occurred two decades later, the boycott was deemed a success.

Another example was the boycott of Coors beer that began in the 1970’s but ended successfully by the mid-90’s when the company changed their anti-gay policies.

Not all boycotts lead to victories.  Many are divisive and come off as reflexive counterpunches to a wide range of provocations.  They make one feel good but they’re not always successful and could even induce a backlash.

Such was the case in the Chick-fil-A debacle last year.  CEO Dan Cathy had made public statements opposing same-sex marriage and we later learned that the restaurant chain had donated large amounts of money to anti-gay organizations.  Activists urged a boycott of the restaurant as a result.

However, anti-gay Mike Huckabee organized a show of support for not only the positions Cathy had taken but also his right to express them.  On August 1, 2012, “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” resulted in record sales as over 600,000 RSVPed on Facebook to back the Huckabee event.  Not only was the company rewarded by exceeding the effects of the LGBT-led boycott, but it also emboldened the opposition to marriage equality.

Nonetheless, Chick-fil-A has since taken steps to re-examine its treatment of LGBT employees and its donations policies.

The proposed dual boycotts involving Russian vodka and the Winter Olympics seem to be knee-jerk reactions and short-sighted.  Dade County in Florida may have felt the impact of an all-out boycott of orange juice, but Russia will simply laugh off a similar protest, urged by author Dan Savage, against their vodka.  Stoli, the most mentioned brand, is not based in Russia though it uses ingredients from there.  A boycott of that company is pointless since they did not craft the law nor do they support it.

Russia’s economy is pumped up by their exports of oil, gas, palladium, nickel, iron, chemical products, autos, military equipment and timber.  The country has vast reserves of natural resources and they maintain a consistent trade surplus.  The exportation of vodka does not even create a blip.   Do you think that a handful of American gay bars’ refusing to sell vodka drinks will have any effect on the Russian economy?  Do you think Putin would buckle under such minimum pressure?

The proposed boycott of the Olympics in Sochi created more of a controversy.   Actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein called for a boycott in an op-ed in the New York Times.  But many disagree.  Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis who could not compete in 1980 because of the boycott called by President Jimmy Carter a year following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan and tennis champion Martina Navratilova believe the athletes should be allowed to participate.

LGBT advocacy groups All Out and Athlete Ally concur.  And the LGBT Sports Commission said in a statement, “Rather than talk about boycotts, the LGBT Sports Coalition is focused on participation. Whether or not an athlete is a member of the LGBT community, everyone who qualifies for these Games deserves the opportunity to compete safely…We did not choose Russia to host these Winter Games. However, we can use it as an opportunity to showcase the damage of repressive governments like that of President Putin.”

Then there is the question of why Russia’s treatment of gays deserve boycotts while other oppressive nations do not.  Local activist Rev. Meredith Moise illustrates the discrepancy.  “A transgender young woman was brutally murdered in Jamaica, hacked to death,” she told me. “Jamaica [as well as Uganda and South Africa] has been hell for LGBT people for years.” 

The point is well taken.  Do we hear about any boycotts of Jamaican rum?  LGBT folks are literally executed in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries.  Do we boycott their oil?

Rev. Moise adds, “This has led many LGBT people of color to speculate and conclude that if a crisis doesn't involve gay white males, it will never get the attention from gay inc. establishment it deserves. Is this really justice or just us?”

International and diplomatic pressure is the only path to change the situation in Russia and elsewhere.  That’s an Olympic-sized challenge but has a better chance of succeeding than boycotts.