Michael Watts

PSCI 3100
29 July 2013
Our Campaign Takes A Stand

An article in the Dallas Voice, a popular weekly newspaper for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) issues, recently criticized our campaign for not being more vocal on these
issues that impact this diverse community. The article was highly critical of our candidate
passing up an invite to attend a meeting of Houston Stonewall Democrats last week though the
issue was a scheduling conflict as our candidate was meeting with labor unions in San Antonio.
The article then asked the question why our campaign has ducked LGBT issues and does not
include an LGBT issues link on our campaign website.
As most of this staff knows, politics is a bit of performance art. In regards to the LGBT
community, we performed miserably and must provide corrective action immediately. We can
begin with our candidate in their next televised interview stating their support for same-sex
marriage, or as it is more commonly known as marriage equality. We must follow this by
hiring an LGBT issues coordinator to the campaign. Even though our candidacy answered the
questionnaire presented by the Houston GLBT Political Caucus during the primary
(www.dallasvoice.com), it is important that the candidate publicly state their support in this
general election through various media outlets.
Though this is not the only issue that this diverse community faces, same-sex marriage is
an excellent way to start an important conversation on LGBT issues of which Texans may not be
aware. In March 2013, 350 people appeared at Equality Texas's LGBT Lobby Day to talk to state
legislators about supporting legislation that would benefit our fellow LGBT Texans
(www.myfoxaustin.com). These topics include supporting equal marriage, workplace protections,
anti-bullying legislation, and reforming adoption laws to include same-sex couples. According to
Equality Texas organizers, this recent lobby day was their best showing ever. It was not just
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people from Austin who showed up, but the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Houston, San
Antonio, Central Texas and the Rio Grande Valley were represented at this event to advocate for
LGBT Texans.
LGBT Texans are spread out across the Lone Star State. Many are very active in the
political and advocacy arenas. Currently the largest United States city with an openly gay mayor
is Houston. Annise Parker, was elected to that position in December 2009 (www.nytimes.com
2009) and then re-elected to another two-year term without a runoff in 2011. Jenifer Rene Pool is
seeking to be the first transperson elected to the Houston City Council (www.dailykos.com,
www.jeniferrenepool.com). Meghan Stabler, a transwoman from Houston, sits on the Human
Rights Campaign Board of Directors (Business Card). Dallas County made history by electing a
lesbian as sheriff in 2004. Sheriff Lupe Valdez won re-election in 2008 and 2012
(www.dallasnews.com). Fort Worth City Council Member Joel Burns disclosed that he was gay
during a meeting where he took a moment to address youth suicides (www.huffingtonpost.com)
and received national attention after his video became a YouTube sensation. State Representative
Mary Gonzlez (www.austinchronicle.com) from the West Texas town of Clint became the first
sexual orientation minority to join the Texas Legislature in 2013 since Glen Maxey, who is
currently a Democratic National Committee Member, did in 1991.
An October 2012 poll conducted by the Texas Tribune shows that 69% of Texans favor
some recognition of same-sex couples whether it is civil unions or equal marriage
(www.texastribune.org, www.dallasvoice.com). This is the highest percentage of support since
the Texas Tribune started asking this question in June 2009. A majority of those that support one
of these two forms of recognition share the opinion that same-sex couples should have the right
to marry. While the recognition of marriage for same-sex couples might only be a plurality for

now, it is trending upward towards majority support. According to Nate Silver's modeling on this
topic, he boldly predicted that 44 out of 50 states would have same-sex marriage support by the
year 2020 (www.thedailybeast.com). One of those 44 states is Texas. Nate Silver is well known
for correctly predicting the Electoral College result in the 2012 presidential election. Currently
thirteen states plus the District of Columbia have enacted laws recognizing same-sex marriages.
We can expect the incumbent Senator's campaign will attack us on this issue. It is an
obvious sign that the Republican Party wants to continue waging the culture wars of the past
while the rest of the country has moved away from them. As shown during the two special
sessions of the 83rd Legislative Session in 2013, the Republican Party is more interested in
pushing an extreme agenda that does not benefit all Texans and instead satisfies a very small
vocal minority of voters that participate in their primary elections (www.lettersfromtexas.com).
The time is now that Texas political observers learn that elections are not won in the March
primary; they are won in November.
The Republican Party reaffirmed their opposition to LGBT Rights with not only
advocating for banning same-sex marriage but calling for the return of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
(DADT) in their 2012 platform (www.motherjones.com). During the period when DADT existed
from 1993 until 2011, over 14,500 service members were discharged from the military
(www.sldn.org). To put that into perspective, that is the personnel strength of three Nimitz-class
nuclear powered aircraft carriers, or 30% of our current carrier fleet. Even though I did not serve
directly with lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members during my six years in the Navy, they
are my fellow shipmates who wore the same uniform I did and took the same oath of allegiance
to support and defend the Constitution. In her Governor-for-a-Day speech on 4 May 2013, State

Senator Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio stated this (Equality Texas, 2013.
www.dallasvoice.com):

He fought for us. He fought for you. He nearly died for our country, and he still suffers
for it every day, and yet, here in his home state, he can be denied or fired from a job, not
because hes Hispanic, and not because he has a disability, but because he is gay. A man
who protects our country is not protected at home. A man who loves his country is denied
and is discriminated against because of who he loves, and Texans, that has to change.

The man that Senator Van de Putte was referencing in her speech is Marine Corps Staff
Sergeant Eric "Fidelis" Alva. He was one of the first Marines wounded during the beginning of
major combat operations during Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003 and was awarded the
Purple Heart. Staff Sergeant Alva passionately testified to the House Armed Services Committee
in July 2008 about how DADT impacted him as a combat veteran who happened to be a gay man
(Human Rights Campaign, 2008). Staff Sergeant Alva resides in San Antonio.
And I recall that during the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary debates, the crowd
booed an openly gay soldier after he asked a question to the candidates if they would revive that
discriminatory policy (abcnews.go.com). The Republican Party doubled down on their
opposition to same-sex marriage via a resolution in April 2013 despite party officials calling for a
change on this issue in their analysis of the 2012 Presidential Election (swampland.time.com).
We have support from one of our key constituencies to a November victory on this topic.
Latino voters in 2012 supported President Obama's re-election 71-27. On the topic of same-sex
marriage, a Pew Research Center poll conducted in October 2012 (www.pewforum.org) showed

that Latinos supported this issue 52-34. An ABC News exit poll conducted on Election Day
exceeded those numbers, showing nearly 60% support (abcnews.go.com). By stating our support
for this issue and embracing other Democratic Party principles such as raising the minimum
wage, ensuring our schools and universities are well funded, providing universal health care for
all our citizens, and passing a robust infrastructure bill that provides jobs for not just American
workers but Texans, we are setting ourselves up for a victory in November.
Our state party platform in 2012 was hailed as one of the most progressive platforms in
the Democratic Party with the inclusion of supporting same-sex marriage and other LGBT issues
(thinkprogress.org). Our platform (www.txdemocrats.org) states:

"Texas Democrats support the full inclusion of all families in the life of our state, with
equal respect, responsibility, and protection under law, including the freedom to marry.
Government has no business putting barriers in the path of people seeking to care for
their family members, particularly in challenging economic times. We support the
Respect for Marriage Act. We support the repeal of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act,
the Texas Defense of Marriage Act and the Texas Constitutional Marriage Amendment
and oppose other attempts to deny the freedom to marry to loving same sex couples."

One of the leaders pushing for this platform plank was Ms. Erin Moore, then VicePresident of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas County. For her tireless efforts in pushing this
issue into our state party platform and ensuring it was included into the national platform, Ms.
Moore was awarded the Buck Massey Legacy of Leadership Award at the 2013 Biennial Texas
Stonewall Democrats conference in Austin, TX.

Throughout this proposal I have mentioned several people because these policies, for
better and in some cases worse, impact people, especially the ones I care about. I attended
Equality Texas's LGBT Lobby Day because as I stated in my March 2013 letter to the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram (www.star-telegram.com) and Dallas Morning News
(letterstotheeditorblog.dallasnews.com) that even though I am a terminally heterosexual Navy
veteran, I am a passionate supporter of same-sex marriage and other LGBT issues because I have
family members who are gay. Many of our volunteers who have assisted with our campaign by
knocking on doors, putting up signs, making phone calls, managing our social media accounts, or
donating money are LGBT. The best way to summarize why we must support our LGBT Texans
is there is a gentleman who works on combating the homeless rate among veterans with a former
Secretary of the Navy. The gentleman happens to be gay. Because he fights for the issues that
impact me as a veteran, I will fight for his issues. We must embrace that same attitude when it
comes to LGBT issues because of the diversity of this community and how it relates to all
Texans.
When our candidate is sworn into office when the next Congress convenes on 3 January,
we will join a majority of Senators who support same-sex marriage, comprised of 48 Senate
Democrats, the two Independent Senators from Vermont and Maine, and Vice President Joe
Biden. President Barack Obama set the standard when it comes to LGBT issues during his
administration ranging from appointing openly LGBT persons to his staff, signing the Matthew
Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to holding an annual Pride ceremony at
the White House every June to signing the DADT Repeal Act of 2010 to vocally stating his
support for same-sex marriage in an ABC interview with Robin Roberts in May 2012.

State Senator Wendy Davis said it best in her opinion to CNN (www.cnn.com): "Real
Texans believe in looking out for each other."
It is time to support our LGBT Texans.

Works Cited

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