More bigotry on the ballot By Frederick Clarkson Anti-gay ballot initiatives continue to work as a major tactic in the Christian Right's drive for political power. Last November, gay rights laws passed by city councils in Cincinnati, Ohio and Lewiston, Maine, were repealed by voters by more than a 2-1 margin. A Portsmouth, New Hampshire advisory vote on gay rights failed by a margin of 3-2. At least 16 towns and counties in Oregon passed Colorado-style initiatives this year, barring the extension of civil rights to gays and lesbians. In 1994, anti-gay politics will move to the state level with efforts to get initiatives on the ballot in Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, and Missouri.
Initiatives are also possible in Maine, Oregon, Washington, and California.
The film argues that gays and lesbians are inappropriately and undeservingly claiming the heritage of the black civil rights movement. Meese and Lott offer a special kind of cynicism. Although they have opposed every modern civil rights advance, they claim to speak for the civil rights movement. What is really going on here is that the far right is attempting to hijack the symbols and moral authority of the civil rights movement to demonize gays and lesbians. This is a clever attempt to divide the far right's historic opponents blacks, Jews, and Hispanics who have been allies in the struggle for civil and economic justice.