Subject: December Op-Ed from Dr. D'Emilio
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 14:23:32 -0500

{The following oppinion/editorial is by Dr. John D'Emilio, director of the 
Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF).  Based
in 
Washington, DC, NGLTF is a progressive organization that has supported 
grassroots organizing and pioneered in national advocacy since 1973.
 Permission 
is granted to reprint with attribution.  

Honoring Our Allies

    My favorite gay liberation publication in the 1970s was the now-defunct
Body 
Politic, published in Toronto.  On its masthead, it carried a quote from Kurt

Hiller, a gay activist from pre-Nazi Germany:  "The liberation of homosexuals

can only be the work of homosexuals themselves."
    At the time, his political judgment made perfect sense to me.  After all,
we 
were just beginning to find our voices as a visible community and, as the 
numbers of us who came out of the closet grew, it created a heady sense of 
power.  Meanwhile, there was no long line of heterosexuals waiting to embrace

our cause.  If we were going to win our freedom, we would have to do it 
ourselves.
    I still believe we need to take initiative on our own behalf, but I no 
longer think we can do it alone.  It's not just  that, even if every last one
of 
us came out of the closet, we would still be a numerical minority.  Rather,
the 
last few years have demonstrated that identifying our likely allies and
winning 
them over--even more than coming out--is the key task for our community and 
movement.  The victories we have achieved, whether it be AIDS funding from 
Congress, civil rights laws from local governments, or the defeat of
statewide 
initiatives in Oregon and Maine, only happen because non-gay people have 
supported us.  The need for allies is even more critical now that a rabid
group 
of right-wing extremists is growing in political power.
    As part of its understanding that allies are essential, NGLTF has
organized 
an "Honoring Our Allies" event in Washington for each of the last several
years.  
This fall, we spotlighted the Congressional Black Caucus.  It seemed
especially 
important to choose them as recipients this year, since one of the first
actions 
of the new Republican-controlled Congress was to defund the CBC and other key

House caucuses, labeling them "special interest" groups.
    What has the Congressional Black Caucus done for the lesbian and gay 
community?  In thirteen key House votes on gay-related issues since the early

1980s, the CBC has been our most consistent supporter.  In seven of them, 
members of the Caucus voted unanimously in our favor; in another three, the
lone 
dissenter among CBC members was the one Republican in the Caucus.  Not 
surprisingly, African-American members of the House were far more supportive
on 
gay issues than Republicans.  But they were also way ahead of Democrats as a 
whole and of women legislators too.  
    The support came on a wide range of issues:  gays and the military;
domestic 
partnership benefits in the District of Columbia; action against hate crimes 
directed at us; funding for gay-related legal services; AIDS education and 
prevention efforts.  Support was there on issues where a broad consensus had 
already been achieved, as in the final vote for passage of the Hate Crimes 
Statistics Act in 1990.  But the CBC also stood by us in situations where it
was 
not so easy to do so, including issues where political passions ran very
deep, 
and where a pro-gay stand could be deemed a liability.  
    In describing the leadership role of the CBC, Barney Frank, a gay member
of 
Congress from Massachusetts, put it this way:   "The Congressional Black
Caucus 
is so far out in front on our issues that no one is even in second place."  
    The record of the CBC doesn't surprise me.  The African-American
community 
has been at the forefront of struggles for justice in this country.  It has
led 
the way in campaigns to translate ideals of equality and fairness into fact.
 
The quest for justice is deeply engrained in the values and in the actions of

its political leaders.  The CBC was supporting us back in the days when our 
movement had no political muscle; they supported us before we asked and
before 
we could give anything in return.  They supported us, in other words, because
it 
was right.
    Alliance building is a two-way street.  Can we develop the same
instinctive 
outrage at injustice and inequality whenever we encounter it?  Can our 
organizations and our leadership do the right thing even without being asked?
 
Will we be the kind of allies that we want others to be for us?  The answers
to 
these questions will tell us--and our potential allies--a lot about the 
integrity of our cause.
###