Family Feud

There's a feud brewing among some gay leaders and it's becoming public.  I'm sure this has been simmering for some time, but the referendum in Maine seems to have been the breaking point.  John Aravosis, a blogger who was named one of the "Top 50 Most Influential LGBT People in the United States," publicized the story last week that an arm of the Democratic National Committee emailed Maine voters to help in to the reelection of New Jersey Governor John Corzine.  Absent from the email was any mention of the gay marriage referendum.  This infuriated some gay leaders, including Aravosis.  He then claimed that the DNC had lied when it called the email a mistake, claiming that internal emails in the DNC proved otherwise.


Enter Andrew Tobias, an important gay leader in his own right, author of one of the most important books in the modern gay literary canon, The Best Little Boy in the World.  Tobias, a financial wizard, is treasurer of the DNC.  Aravosis points to Tobias for allowing the email to be sent; Tobias blames Aravosis for leading a gay revolt against the DNC.   While both have expressed their disappointment that the Obama administration remained quiet on the Maine ballot question, Tobias is much more willing to work with the administration for change.  Aravosis and others have had it: Rick Warren, Don't Ask Don't Tell, the Justice Department's brief that reads like a position paper from Mike Mike Huckabee, and now this.  Gay writer Dan Savage appeared on Keith Oberman's show to say that "President Obama is a fierce advocate of gay rights the same way I'm a ladies' man.  He isn't and I'm not." (Obama had defended his choice of Rick Warren by saying that he has always been a "fierce advocate" of LGBT rights.)


So insiders vs. outsiders are fighting who share the same goal.  Is this really anything new in any struggle?  The fact is, we need them both.  We need the insiders to help us keep the faith and not give up; we need the leaders outside of government to scream like crazy and call the President on his lack of action. We need the insiders who have the ear of the administration  and know-how to work the system; we need the outsiders to tell them the system doesn't work.  We need the insiders to remind us that things would be quite different under a John McCain administration; we need the outsiders to say that a "fierce advocate" would not remain silent when our civil rights are put to a vote.

We need them both.  And I thank them both.