What Is A LGBT Democrat To Do In 2010?

By David Mixner-

Listen up. People start early voting in many states in about 25 days. That is right. In less than a month the future of our country once again goes to the polls. Every two years it seems we struggle with a complex world filled with "the lesser of two evils" choices. Sometimes life is not fair and sometimes our choices just stink.
Especially in this year of the Tea Party nominating in Republican primaries for Congress some really extreme candidates who have even put the fear of God into traditional Republican conservatives. The temptation is to go into panic mode and just support anything the Democrats want you to do in an effort to stop this craziness. The desire to keep the nut jobs out of the Congress is a legitimate one and we must do our part.
Now I know there are those who have had it with the Democratic Party and in many cases with good substantive policy reasons. Certainly the LGBT community can legitimately feel rejected, deceived and abused by the Party this year. With a vastly Democratic Congress and a Democratic President, the results for our community are pitiful. Some of that can be chalked up to a failure of leadership in our own national organizations. There is no question after the elections it is time to look at the results of the last year and hold our leadership accountable.
As a result, many of you are tempted to stay home or vote Green. There is a lot to be said to use a vote to increase the presence of the Green Party but I do not believe that is an effective strategy in a case it could either cause the defeat of a 'full equality Democrat' or elect a total destructive nut job like Sharron Angle to the United States Senate. As for you LGBT Republicans, I hope you will continue to get prominent Republicans on the full equality bandwagon. You have done an amazing job recently. Continue to put your resources to build those bridges to our community. Please stay away from those Palin crazies.
However, if you choose to vote Democrat, then this year you most certainly have choices and some good ones. This is a year we can be good citizens, participate in the battle for the best government we can achieve in these times and not blindly support any old Democrat. Here are some guidelines on those choices.

1. Vote. For any person of any ideology not to vote is just criminal in my mind.
2. Contribute to those candidates who support 'full equality including marriage equality' who are in tough races. I will do my best over the next weeks to point these tough races out to you. We have a number of US Senate races and Congressional races where the Democratic nominee supports us 100%. We should be there for them.
3. Contribute to openly LGBT candidates who have a real shot either directly or through the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.
4. Do not contribute to Democratic Party entities. Do you want your money to go to Senator Ben Nelson or Congressman Ike Skelton who oppose us to the hilt? If you contribute to the Party establishment then you are contributing to them.
5. Do support organizations that only support candidates for full equality. If they are supporting candidates with less than full equality then don't give to them.
6. Also the battles in states like New York, California and Minnesota for marriage equality should be on the top of our lists. The Governor and Attorney General races are crucial to us. Organizations like FightBackNY and ESPA deserve our support in New York.

There is a lot we can do to help as LGBT Democrats in this year's elections without being blackmailed or guilted into supporting horrible conservative blue dog Democrats. So if you are Democrat, don't bitch, sit on the sidelines, relinquish your rights to participate and not vote.

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