YDA in Jackson, Mississippi
I wanted to update you on the latest news from the Young Democrats
of America. The last general meeting was this past weekend in Jackson,
Mississippi with a theme of "Rebuild. Remember. Retake."
Attending
from Georgia were: myself (National Committeeman), Flora Brooke Hesse
(National Committeewoman), Kirk Miller (YDA Rules Chair), Billy Joyner
(YDG President), Benson Manica (YDG Secretary), Kyle Bailey (Atlanta
Stonewall Democrats), and Shelby Highsmith (Atlanta chapter).
Apart
from various trainings on Fundraising, Press Relations, and Voter
Files, panel discussions explored the emerging "religious left" and the
strategy for winning back the South. Former DNC Chair Don Fowler of
South Carolina spoke as did the newly elected House Democratic Whip Jim
Clyburn of South Carolina. At Saturday’s luncheon, we heard from the
leaders of the Mississippi Freedom Democrats party that formed in 1964
as a protest to continued segregration and black voter suppression in
Mississippi. On Saturday evening, a special movie presentation on Iraq
entitled "The Ground Truth" was shown with a discussion afterward with
one of the movie’s stars, US Marine Corporal Sean Huze.
There
was a postmortem on the elections done in the Campaigns Committee, for
which Billy is the deputy chair and I represent the Southeast. Overall,
the campaigns did well, even though Georgia lost its races. There was
plenty of data collected during the campaign, and a professor at the
University of Notre Dame is analyzing the numbers in order to give YDA
a full report by its February meeting. There is the likelihood that
some funds will be available to local chapters in 2007 for use in local
races. If your chapter has contested city elections next year where the
youth vote could make a difference, please let Billy Joyner or myself
know so that we can keep you in the loop as the process for doling out
this money is determined.
In other news, Billy Joyner was
elected the Chair of the State Presidents Association of YDA, which is
a great honor for our fearless leader!
YDA adopted its budget
for the 2007 year, as well as started a restructuring of its charter
and bylaws. The action taken in Jackson included adopting a board
structure with 6 non-YD members elected to 4 year terms. There were
further technical amendments dealing with future national conventions.
The
next YDA meeting will be in February 2-4 in Washington, DC in
conjunction with Founder’s Day and the Winter DNC meeting. The DNC
meeting starts on Feb 1, and the DNC has promised to get passes to any
YD who wants to attend. As always, any Georgia YD is welcome to attend,
so please let us know if you want to go. We do not know which hotel
will hold the event, but it will likely be within walking distance of
wherever the DNC is meeting. At the DNC meeting, YDA plans to push the
DNC to fulfill its long-neglected promise to include youth in state
delegations for the Democratic National Convention. Since 1980, there
have been no youth participation targets despite being clearly called
for in the rules. YDA would love to have a large turnout to pressure
the DNC to formally include youth in ALL state delegations in 2008.
NATIONAL CONVENTION
Mark
your calendars for July 18-21, 2007!!! The YDA National Convention will
be held in Dallas, TX at the Adams Mark Hotel. For those who have
attended previous conventions in San Francisco (2005), Buffalo (2003),
and Tuscon (2001), you know these conventions are a lot of fun and
great way to get together with YDs from across the nation, settle on a
national YD platform, and elect national officers.
Confirmed
speakers include Hillary Clinton and John Edwards so far. The
convention website will not be up until January, but some financial
details are available for you to start saving your pennies. The Adams
Mark Hotel is the largest hotel in Texas, and for rooms with two queen
size beds, the cost is $125/night (or $31.25/person with 4 people in a
room). For those who want your own room, a king size bed is available
in the Royal Tower for $145/night. Registration will cost $60/person.
American Airlines is offering a 5% discount off airfare for conference
attendees, and if 10 or more people fly Southwest, an unspecified
discount will apply.
With the convention being in Dallas,
we will likely have a driving option for those interested in that. The
downside of Dallas is that in order to maximize Georgia’s votes at the
Convention, we must have 34 people in our delegation. Fundraising will
obviously be key, and YDG will work with local chapters to offset the
costs. The experience of the national convention is worth it, though.
Dallas has world class shopping and entertainment, and it promises to
be a good time for everyone. I hope you will make plans to attend.
This
weekend also featured bizarre jockeying in the clusterfuck that is the
YDA campaign for 2007. We identified no fewer than 9 people who were
claiming to be running for YDA president. One truly surreal episode
involved a candidate my state favors who faced with vociferous threats
from the LGBT caucus that if he didn’t come out, he could forget
running for office. The odd thing about these comments, other than
their viciousness in tone, was that the candidate about which they
complained is already out!
He simply had never announced it to people at YDA, and no one had ever
bothered to ask him. Of course, they all whispered their speculation,
but they didn’t ask the source. Had they asked him, he would have
simply told them that yes, indeed, he is gay. In fact, he’s been
living quite openly in a relationship for 4 years now!
Some might claim he was closeted because he didn’t announce his
sexuality, especially when someone tried to spread a rumor that he was
homophobic, of all things. Those of us who knew him best had a great
laugh about that, although at the time, none us knew for sure if he was
gay or not. Some of us suspected, but we really didn’t care. I knew
where this guy stood, so it didn’t matter much to me. My initial
impression about the gay whispers was that he’s a metrosexual kind of
guy who didn’t sleep around YDA, so they were saying he was gay. But
really, had I or anyone else just bothered to ask, he would have told
us.
Why is it that asking about someone’s sexuality is so taboo? It’s like
there’s something wrong with being thought of as "gay". Most people I
know who don’t wear their sexuality on their sleeve, are quite open
when asked. There are varying degrees of being out, but seriously,
with the candidate in question, you’d pretty much have to be deaf,
blind, and mute to not at least strongly suspect this guy is gay. He’s
got way too much sense of style to be straight.
For a moment, let’s pretend this guy was deep in the closet despite
being heavily involved in a very gay-friendly organization like YDA.
Normally, I’m all about people taking whatever time they need to come
to grips with their sexuality and to come out on their own terms. I’m
also sensitive to the concerns of my fellow LGBT citizens who don’t
have supportive families or live in areas or have jobs where being out
would threaten their livelihoods. At the same time, I also understand
the vehemence of Democrats who say "HELL to the No!" when it comes to
closet cases in powerful positions. The closet is truly poisonous,
and it leads to destructive behavior. At the very least, it’s
self-torture on an emotional level.
Anyway, people need to understand that the LGBT community is quite
diverse. Not everyone in it is loudly out, and for many of those
people (including the candidate in question), it’s a non-issue.
There’s no closet, which people would know if they’d ask. It was
really very silly as far as "controversies" go, and it’s looking like
this candidate will end up as the #2 on a ticket that is being put
together. The fact remains, #1 or #2 on the ticket, this guy is
openly gay and has been for quite some time.
The gay bar in Jackson was a sad, sad place. But we managed to make
it fun even though it was "bring your own liquor". Kyle gave a dance
performance on stage Saturday night to rival just about any gay club in
the country! No really scandalous hook-ups occurred while we were
there, which is unusual.
Jackson isn’t a bad place. I just wouldn’t want to live there.
