My friend Susan Jester wrote an effusive commentary about her support for Carl DeMaio and his decision to run against Congressman Scott Peters in the 52nd Congressional District. Susan opens her article by saying, “After a 30-year career in politics, LGBT activism and fundraising, full-time caregiving put me on the sidelines during 2012.”
Susan, I couldn’t agree more. You are misinformed about Carl DeMaio and why most in the LGBT community did not support him in the mayoral race.
People have either great “love and commitment to his (Carl’s) cause or intense hatred of him and his reform agenda,” Susan continued. The intense feelings toward Carl DeMaio by the LGBT community were based upon how he comported himself in the mayoral race, not his reform agenda.
Susan, do you support DeMaio cavorting with those who actively are working against LGBT equality? As a Republican, I am sure you supported former mayor Roger Hedgecock. As you know, Hedgecock through his radio program has become a national voice against marriage equality. The same Roger Hedgecock who sued in 1994 to have “normal people” march in the Pride parade. Then there are DeMaio’s friends and financial supporters, like Doug Manchester and the Caster family, who gave huge donations to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. That is why DeMaio is an LGBT candidate that many in our community cannot support.
DeMaio also relegated LGBT equality as a “social” issue and not the purview of a mayor. Susan quotes DeMaio as saying, “You change people’s minds by touching their hearts.” DeMaio, you do not touch the hearts of the LGBT community when you do not stand firm and publicly repudiate those who are against our equality.
I applaud DeMaio having his partner, front and center, during the announcement of his decision to run for Congress. That is a tiny bit of personal progress, but running for Congress is still about money. Hedgecock, the Casters and Manchester sure may be able to help DeMaio raise a lot of cash in North County and from downtown developers. Is DeMaio willing to give up the cash cow to support our equality publicly and defiantly?
Susan, these are not smear tactics as you profess. These are cold hard facts. LGBT people want equality yesterday. When an LGBT candidate runs, we do not want one that believes being a member of our community is a “social” or lifestyle issue. It is a constitutional issue; whether LGBT people are going to be afforded equal protection under the law.
We only need to look to other LGBT elected officials to see how a candidate should respond to their community. There is Sen. Tammy Baldwin, or Congressmen Jared Polis and David Cicciline, as well as Houston Mayor Annise Parker.
Would DeMaio support the Employment Non-Discrimination bill that grants LGBT people equal protection from being fired from their jobs? He is pro-choice according to some reports; will we hear that on the campaign trail? Would he have voted to reaffirm the Voting Rights Act, an issue that the Supreme Court will rule on next week? Last I checked, these are issues that congressmen also vote on; just like all the fiscal issues that DeMaio likes to espouse.
DeMaio cannot win without a substantial LGBT vote because we live everywhere, including La Jolla, the other southern county beach communities, as well as in the hinterlands like Poway and Scripps Ranch. The LGBT community is no longer ghettoized. DeMaio should know that because that is why he lost the mayoral race; the LGBT and progressive vote.
What DeMaio hopes is conservative bastions, like Coronado and Rancho Bernardo, will easily offset the LGBT vote which he seems to have written off.
LGBT voters are about five percent of the voting electorate. When races are close, as the 52nd Congressional District race is proposed to be, every vote counts. Will DeMaio make the same mistake he made in the mayoral race?
It is time for DeMaio to be authentic in Hillcrest, as well as Rancho Bernardo. If he is a social moderate, as he now proclaims, let us hear it from the rooftops. Perhaps then, the LGBT community will believe that he is not a typical Tea Party or ultra-conservative Republican.
STAMPP CORBIN
PUBLISHER
San Diego LGBT Weekly
I wouldn’t trust Carl “Dirty” DeMaio as far as I could throw him with one hand, regardless of what comes out of his mouth.
Well said Mr. Corbin, well said!