LGBTs speak out at Jill Stein rally

Members of the local LGBT community spoke out at a rally for Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein at the World Beat Center Thursday, Oct. 20.

“The corporate rulers tell a lie, that we must vote the lesser evil, that we must vote with our fears, not our hopes, in order to stop things from getting even worse,” said Ann Menasche, local lesbian activist and Green Party of San Diego member. “They tell us to swallow the medicine and choose between Donald, the bigoted, billionaire buffoon who can’t keep his mouth shut or his hands off women’s bodies, or Hillary, the double talking darling of Wall Street and Neocons promoting fracking all around the world, who can’t keep her missiles from raining down on other countries. [But] there’s another choice out there folks. There’s another woman in the raise!”

Presidential candidate Stein is a physician by trade who later became an activist and politician. She began her career as a medical doctor in the 70s, turning to activism in late 90s fighting against environmental racism and for campaign finance reform. By the 2000s, she began a path in electoral politics, including running as a Green for Mass. Governor, State Representative, and in 2012 and now as a candidate for the U.S. President. Ajamu Baraka; a human rights activist, scholar and educator; is her running mate.

Stein and Baraka are running on a platform called “Our Power to the People Plan,” which includes halting climate change, creating living wage jobs for all, guaranteeing “economic human rights” (including access to food, water and housing), making public education free (from pre-school to college), and reforming the criminal justice system (including releasing non-violent drug offenders and demilitarizing the police).

At the rally, speakers pointed out why Stein was superior over other candidates and what the Green Party stands for.

“The Green Party is the only party that doesn’t accept money from corporations or Super PACs. We are a grassroots party of the people and for the people and truly by the people and that’s why we’re here tonight,” said Cecile Estelle, local queer activist and emcee for the event.

Lucila Conde, a local queer activist that fights for human rights in Mexico, spoke about the legacies of NAFTA and said that Stein understands its impact. NAFTA refers to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which President Bill Clinton signed in 1994, eliminating all tariffs (taxes on imports and exports) between the U.S., Canada and Mexico over the following 15 years. The Stein/Baraka platform includes repealing the agreement.

“The difference between the Jill Stein and the Clinton and Trump ticket is that Jill understand the true meaning of NAFTA…” Conde said, who criticized the agreement for its impact on Mexican society.

“Corn growers and other agricultural workers were especially hit by the economic impact of this bill. As a result, we have one of the largest economically forced migration of Mexicans into the United States in history,” Conde said.

The lead speaker

The lead speaker for the night was David Cobb, Stein’s campaign manager. Cobb himself ran for president as the Green Party nominee in 2004. At the rally, Cobb addressed critics who say a vote for the Green Party is just a blank or protest vote.

“The Green Party is not a protest vote!” said Cobb. The Green Party is a movement vote!”

But Cobb was clear to point out that the Green Party did not represent the movement.

“The Green Party is not the movement for peace and justice and democracy and ecology, Cobb explained. “[There are] organizations actually leading those movements – lets name them – black lives matter, the eco-justice movement, the movement to abolish the prison industrial complex, the movement to end corporate constitutional rights. These movements exist and they’re getting larger, more stronger, more organized, every single day.”

What the Green Party does seek, said Cobb, is to be the movements’ political party.

“Let’s be honest, a movement alone, is not enough. It is a necessary but not sufficient condition,” Cobb said. “Yes we need those social movements and those social movements are growing but we also need an electoral arm of those movements at the ballot box. … The Green Party aspires to be [that].”

Cobb on LGBT issues

After his stump, I asked Cobb what would a Stein presidency do for LGBT people? Cobb responded by pointing out the party’s openness to talk about LGBT concerns.

“We are willing to talk about sexism and racism and homophobia. We are willing to talk about not just LGBT issues, but actually talk about transgender people and intersexed people, and actually say that we know that gender is actually a construct. We want to be a place where we challenge ourselves and our own supporters to rethink these things,” Cobb said.

One of the event’s attendees, a 20-year old bisexual man named Michael Leggerie who was helping with the event’s clean up, listened to Cobb speak to this reporter and became a bit taken aback.

“I’ve never heard a presidential candidate [or campaign staff] current or past say that gender is a social construct,” Leggerie told Cobb and this reporter. “So I applaud him for that, and that is profound.”

This reporter also asked Cobb what specific LGBT policies a Stein presidency would push for. While Cobb could not answer the question in that moment, he did follow up with me through email. In his email, Cobb provided a number of policies a Stein presidency would be working on, including a national non-discrimination law that is queer and intersex-inclusive, LGBTQ-inclusive single-payer healthcare including gender confirmation treatment and surgery, a policy that allows for transgender people to obtain correct government IDs and stopping U.S. wars abroad that “kill LGBTQ persons and their families worldwide.”

Rally attendees

More than 150 people attended the event at the Balboa Park event center. Some of them were LGBT. Those that identified were asked if they would be voting for Stein and why?

Jose Cortez, 35, gay man living in North Park, was one of them. He said he would be voting for Stein and had several reasons.

“I am a byproduct of the system and how the system is not working for me and the system has been based on two parties and they have not been working out and therefore I have been looking elsewhere,” said Cortez. “With the Green Party, I align with their philosophy, the idea of people, planet, peace before profit. And you know with climate change getting worse by the day, I want to have a future and I want my nephews and nieces to have a future, and I feel if we stay on the same trajectory, we won’t have a future.”

Similar to Cortez, Leggerie, the man that appreciated Cobb’s gender perspective, said he too would be voting for Stein and had multiple reasons for his decision.

“She’ll fight for the planet and fight for peace and nonviolence, when the U.S. has such an imperialistic and violent force in the world and that’s terrible. She’s fighting for a fair economy and because right now our system favors the corporations and wealthy,” said Leggerie. “And you can take her seriously because she’s not beholden to any corporate interests.”

As of this report, national presidential polls showed Stein fluctuating between 2 and 4%. If Stein were to win at least 5% of the popular vote, the Green nominee in the next presidential election would receive approximately $10 million in federal funding, a major goal the party is seeking to achieve.