From: Marvin1923@aol.com Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 17:34:40 -0400 Subject: MID_OCTOBER '96 COLUMN NOTE: THE FOLLOWING CAN BE PRINTED OR DISTRIBUTED IN ANY MANNER WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION, MARVIN LIEBMAN MARVIN LIEBMAN APT. 806 1330 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE NW WASHINGTON, DC 20036 TEL: 202 659 1942 FAX: 292 785 3255 E-MAIL: marvin1923@aol.com INDEPENDENTLY SPEAKING (publish anytime after October 20, 1996) WHAT THE ELEPHANT TRIES TO FORGET by Marvin Liebman Drip. Drip. Drip. For many Republicans, water torture has taken on a whole new meaning of late. Intent on declaring the immorality of homosexuality, and on casting the GOP as a bulwark against the ever-encroaching "gay agenda," religious conservatives and others in the party of Lincoln may well be confused and frustrated by what has become a steady stream of Republican conservative comings out. In the past few months alone, came Arizona Republican congressman, Jim Kolbe; then Republican super-strategist Arthur Finkelstein. Who's next? And when? I have known both Kolbe and Finkelstein for many years and can vouch for their conservative credentials and their homosexuality. I first met Jim Kolbe in the early 60's when he was a crew-cut young conservative serving on the National Board of Young Americans For Freedom (YAF), an organization I helped start after the 1960 GOP convention. I met Arthur in 1976, when he worked along with me on Jim Buckley's ill-fated campaign for reelection to the US Senate in New York. Jim Kolbe came out, under some pressure from gay publications, in August. After an illuminating profile in October's Boston magazine, Arthur, a strategist for Senator Jesse Helms among other leading gay-rights foes, has not denied his homosexuality. So what? Their sexual orientation has nothing whatsoever to do with their talents as a legislator and political strategist. The disclosures, however, raise a question far beyond the lives of both men. The question is blatant hypocrisy. For while Republicans hit Bill Clinton over alleged ethical lapses, the rising tide of open homosexuality in GOP circles begs the question of whether many Republican leaders are not plagued by this evil and ugly hypocrisy. And what about Kolbe and Finkelstein, who continue as conservative Republican stalwarts? It's not a question I can answer rashly and be done, for I too lived as a closeted conservative for many years. Indeed, I lived in the closet all my life until I came out at the age of sixty-seven in 1990. Until that movement, and I reiterate "moment," I knew little about gay politics and cared even less. As a relatively libertarian thinker, I thought that "they" certainly shouldn't be pushed around or denied the same civil liberties and rights as any other American, but "they" really had nothing to do with me. After all. I wasn't one of "them" except for my secret sexual orientation. I know that It is possible to lead this double inner life, and excuse almost anything because it's happening to "them," the outsiders. Then, when I finally came out. it wasn't "therm" anymore. It was me. Although I can empathize with the moral blackout of so many in the closet, I can condone it no longer. Although I fully understand the convoluted and self-serving attitudes of Kolbe and Finkelstein, and I can even comprehend the professional acceptance of them by gay- baiters, I will accept it no longer. As I said above, I first met Arthur during the Senate reelection bid of my friend, Jim Buckley. The year was 1976. I had just returned from England, and the Republicans were still recovering from the Watergate debacle. While we never really became good friends during that race (could some kind of "gaydar" be at work which disturbed Arthur), he did earn my professional respect, which deepened over the next four years. His talent in using computers to poll and generate enormous quantities of direct mail, helped staunch anti-communists sweep the 1980 elections, putting conservatives in control of the U.S. Senate and Ronald Reagan in the White House. But with the waning of the Cold War, Republicans saw their party's glue dissolving and had to find another sticky mixture to fill the fissures in their ranks. Their choice, as America and the AIDS crisis, that so many of its citizens still dreaded, entered the 1990's, soon became anti-homosexual. Horrified, and believing that publicly coming out would show conservatives that "we" were an integral part of their movement, I came out in June 1990. Even though I failed, Jim and Arthur, perhaps believing they could quietly dam the river then overflowing the banks of civility, labored on with no comment. My quarrel in those days, as today, is not with individual gay people active in right-wing political circles. Living in the closet, turning a deaf ear to anti-gay jokes and diatribes, even consorting with and advising anti-Gay politicians are a Faustian bargain anyone is free to make. I cannot respect it, but I can accept that it's all around us. My quarrel lies with those who exploit gay people's talents, aware of the gay people working in their midst and continue to inveigh anyway against their "sin," "immorality," and the bogeyman of "special rights." In relying on the professional and volunteer he[p of gay people, either in the war room or the family room, Bob Dole is not alone. Many other Republicans, including Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly, have close gay relatives and yet bear the cross of anti-gay politics. Like the elephants. whose likenesses festoon their lapels, they may not actually forget this fact. They may simply keep it in its own compartment, ignoring its implications on their claims to family values and out of the light of day. -END-