This past weekend I took a quick jaunt to Seattle. Living on the West Coast makes trips like these easy. It's always a direct flight and if there is no fog in the Bay Area, flights are on time and under two hours between the Bay Area and Seattle. The primary reason for the visit was to attend the Seattle Chapter of the Human Rights Campaign's Auction/Gala/Fundraiser. My friend Dean is the political co-chair of the chapter and was presenting an award. Plus, it was a chance to hang with the gays of Seattle. Read about the
HRC here.
The evening started with me picking up my "date".
Ernie and Vickie
Vickie, Dean and I are all classmates from high school. Vickie is an immigration lawyer (trying to get people into the US, although she at one point was a lawyer for the INS working to deport people) in Seattle and has just purchased her first home. Congratulations to Vickie for that! Anyway, my Dad has this fantasy the I will someday come to my sense, return to being straight and marry Vic. So when I was scrolling through pictures on the camera and he saw this one, he wanted me to go back and he wanted to look at it. Sorry, Dad. Anyway, Vic was lamenting the fact that she was going to spend the evening amongst the company of well-dressed, well-groomed men and the majority of them being inaccessable to her. Oh well.
Vic and I arrived just in time for the silent auction. In traditional Ernie Chen fashion, I made one silent auction bid and subsequently outbid. It's exactly what I wanted to happen. I feel like I have participated in good faith, but not didn't actually have to shell out any money.
The main dinner and program started at 8PM. But remember, we were on what I call "Gay People Time" where everything has to be at least a half hour late. With this late start and the fact that things always take longer than expected, the evening dragged on until 11:45PM when it was supposed to end at 10:30PM. Ahh, who cared, it was Saturday night.
One of the first speakers was the HRC president, Cheryl Jacques. She spoke of how one of the main actions of the HRC this past year was to lobby against the Senate's passing of the Federal Marriage Amendment. You might have heard something about that this past summer. Bush and his administration is trying to amend the constitution to limit marriage to only between and man and a woman. In essence, Bush wants to institutionalize and write discrimination into the constitution. This is something that I cannot forgive about Bush and his policies. I am perhaps a heretic, especially here in the Bay Area, in which I can disagree with Bush but also try to see the point of view he is making. I don't necessarily assume that he is bad. But on this issue, I can't in any way give him the benefit of the doubt. It is simply a hateful move and for this alone, he needs to be defeated in November.
Cheryl spoke passionately about the issues but one thing stood out in my mind and here is a quote that I had to write down.
"It is time for us (gays) to talk to the people who love us to stand with us in not allowing discrimination to be written into the United States Constitution and to allow our society to continue to treat us unequally"
Something about that resonated with me. I must say that I have been guilty of resting on the laurels of the hard work and struggle of those gays that have come before me who have worked so hard to get us this far. It is certainly time for me to start talking to my parents and friends to realize the serious of these issues and to help us. In fact, at breakfast this morning, I actually openly talked about gay marriage (just a passing remark) in front of Mom and Dad. I'm starting.
After Cheryl Jacques, one of the things that impressed me was the fact that BOTH United States Senators from Washington State were in attendence. Dean, being the political co-chair, was instrumental in getting them there.
Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash)
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash)
For those of you Washington State residents, I encourage you to re-elect Patty Murray to the US Senate this November. She is running against Rep. George Nethercutt the person who defeated Speaker of the House Tom Foley back in 1994. Patty Murray will be serving in her 3rd term as Senator from Washington and with each year, moves up in seniority, which is gold in the US Senate. In point of reference, after nearly 12 years in the Senate, she is still only 9th in seniority out of 12 on the very powerful Appropriations Committee. Vote for
Patty Murray. One last thing that I found interesting in Patty Murray's remarks is that there is a pretty high probability that as of this Fall, Washington State will be the first state in history to ever have the top three political offices to be held by women, this is assuming that Murray herself is re-elected and that Christine Gregoire will be elected governor. Pretty cool.
Dinner break.
A picture of the many A-List Seattle gays
After the dinner break, Dean presented an award to to Multifaith for its great work in the community and the live auction. There were 11 high priced items on the docket, each given a dollar value. The game at our table was to predict whether the final purchase price was over or under the stated value. I went 8 for 11.
Dean on stage, he's DA MAN
The evening ended with......LILY TOMLIN
Lily Tomlin onstage at the Seattle HRC gala.
Did you know that Lily Tomlin is a lesbian? I didn't, but glad she plays in our sandbox. Her political leanings, well let's just say this should reveal all....
"President Bush may be the only person in the world not suffering from information overload." -- Lily Tomlin (9/18/04)
She did a couple bits using some of her most famous characters. One was Ernestine and the other was the little six year old girl writing a letter. Great!! Lily Tomlin is awesome. Overall, a fantastic evening. Great friends, great entertainment, and most importantly, a wake-up call for me to not be so complacent about how good I have it, but what can I do to make it better.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE DEFEAT OF THE FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT
Go
here to see how each senator voted. The actual vote wasn't on whether or not to accept the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), but actually a vote on whether or not to continue discussing whether or not to proceed. If you remember any of your civics lessons, many votes in government are simply procedural. The senate needed to vote on whether to even bring the FMA to the floor to discuss. The vote that went in the favor of those against the FMA was a cloture vote, a vote to end discussion. The cloture vote that failed on July 14th, 2004 was to close the discussion on whether or not to discuss the bill and move to considering the bill on the floor. A cloture vote needs 60 votes to actually stop discussion. Cloture is a way for the senate to overcome the filibuster. The fact that those for the FMA didn't get 60 votes was key, but the fact that they didn't even get a majority, getting only 48 was a grand slam for the HRC and all of us who oppose the FMA. Only one Democratic Senator, Zell Miller of Georgia, voted with the Republicans. He's not seeking re-election this year anyway, but will be replaced by a Republican.
However, there are Republicans (those moderates that are fairly liberal on social issues) who voted against cloture and thereby stalled the discussion of the FMA. These are Republicans that I have always accepted and been willing to support. They are:
Benjamin Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colorado) He is not running for re-election this year and there is a dogfight to replace him. There is a good chance that the people of the state of Colorado will send a Democrat to replace Senator Campbell.
Lincoln Chaffee (R-Rhode Island) Chaffee is, in many respects, a Democrat. Of all Republicans, he votes with the Democrats most often. He comes from a prominant Rhode Island family and the Chaffee name carries a great deal of weight in that state. He was one of the senators the Democrats courted highly to switch parties, they eventually got Jeffords of Vermont.
Susan Collins (R-Maine) A leading moderate Republican and now the Chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee. This post is crucial in the discussion of the restructuring of the US Intelligence community.
John McCain (R-Arizona) A maverick in many respects. This vote is right in line with who he is.
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) Like her counterpart Collins, a leading moderate voice. Plus, I've always kind of had a crush on her.
John Sununu (R-New Hampshire) This was a SURPRISE. Sununu has always been viewed as one of those extreme conservatives, especially on social issues. His vote here came, from my perspective, out of nowhere. However, he does represent New Hampshire, where being liberal on social issues is not a death sentence.
