In the Life: Ep. 1106, "Taking the Lead"

coming up on in the Life gay and lesbian leaders in the White House and the House of Representatives on the federal bench and in small town America they know me and accept me for who I am Oscar nominated actor sir Ian McKellen takes us on a night out all this and more on this edition of In The Life America's gay and lesbian cultural news [Music] magazine in the life is funded in part by the H vanan amaran Foundation additional support provided by the Gil Foundation The Pride Foundation the Ted Snowden Foundation the autoa charitable trust the college wood foundation the rainbow endowment William J resck and the annual support of in the Life members [Music] IQ [Music] welcome to in the life I'm Katherine Linton in the last decade an unprecedented number of gay men and lesbians have begun to serve openly in a broad spectrum of leadership roles from the courts to Congress from City Hall to the White House both their jobs and constituencies are as diverse as their own backgrounds dispelling the myth of a monolithic gay community with a single agenda over the last 10 years we've covered many of these leaders the newsmakers as well as those lesser known on this episode we'll revisit some of these stories and take you from the White House to the House of Representatives and Beyond the Beltway correspondent Jonathan Kart introduces us to the first openly gay judge appointed to a federal bench special guest Ru Paul remembers a civil rights hero Bay Rustin was eventually forced out of his leadership position because of his homosexuality Tanya Barfield reports on author and activist Keith boyin and Neil Miller meets the mayor of a small Missouri town but first when Virginia PUO went to work for Bill Clinton she had already been a highly visible gay activist for more than three decades as a member of the Clinton Administration she became the highest ranking openly gay official in government in 1987 Virginia was arrested in front of the White House 10 years later she was running it so why don't we go around the table and just do our thing okay so Brooks what do we have um yesterday I distributed the monthly parking permit as assistant to the President apuzzo is responsible for the smooth running of all white house functions from the daily operations room one actually just prepared a draft package of I'm new to the complex or I'm moving that will help to Clinton's recent trip to Africa as we walked through the village we looked at um the various little businesses and some 25 years ago would you have ever imagined yourself here no I didn't imagine myself here 25 weeks ago uh no this is a you don't I I I don't think you begin as a uh outgate person in government um thinking that someday you'll end up at the White House as a gay person myself I would have never imagined an out lesbian in the white house how do people react I mean are people well most people say a lesbian x-none in the white house that's that's the issue for them and yet apuzzo has successfully combined a long career in government with her gay rights activism in 1976 and 1980 she coordinated the national gay task force efforts to get a plank in the Democratic party platform by the time I got to be 1980 there was a foundation for some of the work to be done there was the threat of Reagan uh defeating Carter the Democratic party finally saw that we were not just an issue that was embarrassing candidate Carter but a constituency that was pivotal if President Carter was to Prevail after that I supported Governor Cuomo's Run for the governor and at that time was very tempted to join his administration um he had made it known that I would be welcome in the administ ation and just at that time I um was asked to take on the role of executive director of the national gay task force then the movement exploded in the 80s and I was there and privileged to serve during those times apuzzo got her chance to work for Governor Cuomo in 1985 on the consumer protection board where she continued her work on the emerging AIDS issues I've been doing advocacy work at consumer protection around the cost of AIDS drugs as well as um uh everything from morticians who wouldn't take corpses uh people couldn't have their loved ones provided a funeral despite their willingness to pay and everything they just you know we had to fight every step of the way so when activist planned a protest against President Reagan's AIDS policies apuzzo wanted to be there I'd been there locally in New York and I'd been there lobbying Congress for the first um hearings on aids would been to the FDA and now there was a protest at the White House but I was a government official so I did it and I was arrested and it was one of my proudest moments to be able to cross a line and have it mean that okay you know we're willing to go up against and Beyond the law to say this is wrong fortunately I was a government official in Mario Como's Administration and Mario KO is the kind of person who understands when an issue is a matter of conscience this is a shot during a a press conference with Governor CUO and I love the shot because it's very clear that Mario Cuomo is actually listening usually usually Mario Cuomo is talking and pointing in this picture I'm pointing and talking and Mario Cuomo is listening so I kind of like that picture her arrest was not a problem for Clinton either now as assistant to the president her days are filled with meetings work before work and work after work but but the day gener is filled from 7:45 in the morning until 6 7:00 at night with meetings uh one meeting after another meeting after another meeting and she uses her role to continue to raise the issues of gay and lesbian civil rights as managers are we ready for what diversity really you know needs to mean in the 21st century and is the institution prepared once people are here to provide what is needed and and I talk only from my own experience as a as a lesbian are people are is the government prepared for spousal benefits do I have an opportunity to say this is important yeah I mean take the fact that the president uh went a couple of months ago to the Human Rights Campaign dinner I had the opportunity to drive over with the president and to talk to him about issues of concern to gays and lesbians and was delighted to see that you know the president was there I said you know look a lot of people have emailed me said this is a very important thing you're doing and you know the president said I'm happy to be doing it it's the right thing to do and do I have an abiding astonishment over the fact every night when I walk out and see the White House yeah I grew up in the 40s and 50s in the Bronx you know I've been called every name under the book in my life you know Dyke and from there from people who never said it with love and caring I've been an outlaw in 22 States you know lesbians and gays are felons in 22 States in this country am I pleased I'm delighted as an American how do I feel I never thought would be here now but I know that the vision for the administration is to keep moving forward and so I've got my eye on where we can go Virginia PUO is now retired but remains active in Progressive organizations she serves in the board of the Empire State pride agenda and volunteers for Planned Parenthood [Music] leadership is a contentious issue in the lesbian and gay community and it raises many tough questions like who are the leaders whom do they represent and to whom are they accountable recently The Advocate a national gay Magazine asked in a reader poll who do you think should lead the gay and lesbian movement providing what many felt were some arbitrary choices including none of the above the poll received mixed reactions particularly from some of the candidates I was surprised that the advocate presented that poll as part of the original article um it I thought gee they haven't read my chapter on leadership I don't think anyone at the advocate thought it was a serious poll I voted for none of the above I was really actually hoping for Mis Congeniality you know although the actual poll was not taken too seriously the problems facing leadership were and in terms of the question who should be the one leader of the gay community the answer from the leaders we spoke to was unanimous no one we need to actually move away from um enshrining one person as the epitom as the leader for the entire movement and look much more locally at the many leaders we have and and look also at cultivating and developing and training new leadership AIDS has taught us a very valuable lesson it taught us that leadership can come and it can go very quickly and so when we place all of our hopes in one leaders we are actually advoc responsibility ourselves I think we have made a colossal error historically thinking that gay and lesbian issues are left issues that they are only liberal issues gay Les gay lesbian Americans live along the political Continuum if your question is would I be a good leader of the entire G Les movement probably not no I think we're and and at the same time uh more left uh leaders would not be good leaders of the law cab group and we may never agree on One Vision and I don't think we will I mean certainly you look at the gay Republicans and they very much believe in the vision of America that new Gingrich offers this country and you know that's not a vision I agree with while it's clear that there is a need for multiple leaderships there still exists an underlying problem most gays and lesbians can't identify even the current crop of leaders much less their organizations some of the frustration that I see around leadership particularly since I've left the Beltway I'm more attuned to it um is is the sense that there's a real Clubby uh kind of leadership and it doesn't really interested in hearing what the ordinary person has to say and it isn't really interested in you if you don't have money we have I think fairly isolated uh National organizations and we have a plethora a grand plethora of hund of thousands literally thousands of lesbian gay rights organizations jumping up all over the country and we have no effective coordin among them what I see is a tremendous distrust among Grassroots activists of the Washington based movement most of our organizations don't have chapters they don't have annual conventions um they don't have a way for members to participate but the challenges lie not only with the leaders themselves but also with the task they face unifying a diverse and often fragmented community in our movement and in the Progressive Movement in general I think that we have organized around identity racial identity um and even the Gan lesbian movement is itself an identity-based Movement we are trying to unite constituencies that um have on the surface little connection between them a labor movement a women's movement a lesbian gay rights movement a people of color movements uh which have real longstanding and deep divisions between them and it is very difficult to overcome them maybe we need to form a gan lesbian agenda 2000 which is about dealing with homophobia racism and sexism and makes no bones about it but I think we must make coalitions with other groups that we bring the gift that we have learned from our oppression to the society as a whole finally in a move that might be perceived as ironic gay and lesbian leaders now say they must go back to their Roots the Grassroots organizing that has been so effective for the radical right I'm confused about the Christian rights model on the one hand and I think that their training of activists has been very effective and I'd love to replicate that on the other hand they're um the way they the right-wing doesn't believe in critical thinking they they systematically attack the idea of questioning and pluralism and dissent there's one thing that we all must do regardless of anything else we have got to build a field operation in this T in in the country and we've never done it we've had a lot of smoke and mirrors we have had the illusion of a field we've had an illusion of a kind of piece of Machinery that can honor constituency power there is no there there and we should stop pretending there is the radical right has been very effective in packaging our goals as special rights and I feel like we have not been equally effective in packaging our goals as what we do want our goal for the next 5 years really is as an education campaign we're engaging in our party obviously the rise of the far right is most prevalent our party and I think that uh as we succeed or fail we'll have a large measure on an effect on the rest of the gay lesbian communities I believe we need words and symbols that are as deeply rooted and resonant in the American psyche as anything the radical right can come up with I do think we have a a vision of a gay and lesbian agenda and I think that's where we can come together Progressive and conservative alike around our vision for gay people but the larger Vision thing to quote my favorite guy George Bush not um the larger Vision question of you know what are we for what do we want um in a broad way I don't think that gay people have begun to answer that currently the executive director of the national g lesbian task force is Lori Jean and Irv is at the Ford Foundation both Elizabeth Burch and Rich taffle remain in their posts when I was 15 years old and growing up in Cincinnati Ohio I snuck into a matina showing of a movie called making love it stared Michael anen as a married doctor coming out of the closet and Harry Hamlin played a very out and proud book author uh Kate Jackson was in it too there was a scene where Michael and Harry kissed and fell onto a bed at that moment I realized I wasn't alone alone in fact I was going to be just fine thank you for that Michael and Harry I'm Scott sien and you're watching in the [Music] life the original March on Washington in 1963 led by Dr Martin Luther King was a simal event in the struggle for civil rights what many people don't know is that the chief organizer of that March was a gay man Bay Rustin was eventually forced out of his leadership position because of his homosexuality in 1996 Siri host Katherine Linton traveled to Atlanta Georgia for Martin Luther King Day there she talked to one woman determined to keep the spirit of B rustin's work Alive Book to describe another great man B Rustin I'm here with Charlene cman organizer of the Beed Rustin rally Charlene why is it important to honor be Ruston today and why is it important that this contingent March openly in the March this is very important particularly here in the south in Atlanta with all eyes on Atlanta that the gay and lesbian movement be a part of the Civil Rights Movement as well as and more specifically the African-American gay and lesbian Community take homage of B Rustin being an out black gay man back in the 40s we need that as a positive role model to help this to help break up the silence Barett Rustin found himself ostracized from the very Community to which he was so devoted simply because of his homosexuality today however 33 years later we find gay African-American leaders and organizations striving to educate all communities about issues of race and sexuality one emerging leader is ahead of the national black lesbian gay leadership Forum Keith boyin here's Tanya Barfield with the story the national black gay and lesbian leadership Forum was founded in 1988 as a means to combat racism sexism and homophobia Keith boyin was fresh out of college in ' 88 he then went on to law school held positions on two presidential campaigns and worked for 2 years in the Clinton white house before becoming the leadership forum's executive director this past year today through education programs and Coalition building boyin and the leadership Forum work to strengthen existing institutions for black gay men and lesbians and Bridge the gaps between diverse communities and identities much of our work as an organization is in educating the various communities that the members are part of so for example we would go to the black community and educate them about uh home homosexuality and homophobia we'd go to the gay lesbian community and educate them also about racism and about the causes and concerns of African Americans so there's a duality that takes place and we uh we work on sort of Bridging the Gap between the two communities that we represent from my person my personal perspective it's important not to to uh fall into the Trap of creating a hierarchy of Oppression where one part of your identity becomes uh less important than another part uh Mel Boozer who's spoke at the 1980 Democratic Convention as an openly gay uh representative from the District of Columbia made a statement that I think is very profound and and reaches me as well he said I know what it feels like to be called and I know what it feels like to be called and I can sum up the difference in one word none boyin joined the Clinton White House staff in 1992 when he was hired by George Stephanopoulos while there he often worked on issues of concern to the gay and lesbian community and he was inst mental in organizing The Landmark White House meeting between Clinton and gay leaders in the spring of 93 he left the White House in 1994 and began work on his first book the book is called One More River to Cross uh black and gay In America which will be published by double day this year the purpose of the book when I when I set out to write it was to describe the experience of what it feels like to be both black and gay I interviewed hundreds of different people from AC across the country some who were some of whom were black and some were not some Were Gay and some were straight I learned that black people are not as homophobic as people seem to think that they are that we are uh in fact my my analysis seems to indicate that blacks are probably any less homophobic than than other communities we have to make sure that we understand that the black community is also the community that elects by and large members of the Congressional Black Caucus who are for the most part the most supportive group in Congress of any demographic group on gay and lesbian issues on the morning of October 16th 1995 about 300 black gay men took part in the Million Man March we weren't quite sure how we would be received that day but as we marched through the streets carrying signs and placards that announced that we were both black and gay we gained confidence as we arrived at the side of the March the group of people greeted us with Applause and cheers and support we learned something valuable from that experience we learned that when we have the courage to be open and honest about who we are people in our communities not only accept us they respect us more I'm Keith boyin and you're watching in the [Music] life [Music] we are sisters and sisters brothers and brothers workers and lovers we are together we are Marching recently acclaimed as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings sir Ian McKellen Dem demonstrated his own brand of leadership with the 1994 show a night out if that title's got any width to it at all it is that it nicely ENC capsules the two sides of my life one one is one is the the mainstream actor who's pursued that career pretty heavily for the majority of his career and the outside is is uh the other side of me which frankly is is is the main part of my life at the moment the activist rather than the actor in 1991 sir Ian made history as the first openly gay man to be knighted what a wonderful opportunity to use the Knighthood the stamp of the establishment's authority Against The Establishment and say I am a gay man you've given me a Knighthood why do you persist in having laws which discriminate against me uh my brothers and sisters with a night out sir Ian publicly voiced his identi as both actor and activist that the world is never going to be entirely reconciled to the existence of homosexuality until every lesbian and gay man in the world comes out and tells the truth about himself he does however realize the difficulty of being out in the entertainment industry because they're under pressure from their agents and managers and indeed the advertisers Who present the commercials in between the shows they appear in on television um Ed at them to liee uh in order to perpetuate the bigger lie that we're all the same well we're not all the same we're all different thank God and it's the diversity of Life which which we should be celebrating not um not the samess dear in I'm a 53 year old married man my wife and I have shared everything never had any secrets except for one since a very young age 11 to 12 years I have known that I felt different uh as for people Young than me uh they probably have much less of a problem with being out because the ground has been prepared for them by by other people who they should respect and remember and if they don't know anything about them should learn about and if they are boogieing down in the clubs and the bars and they think what does it matter what does the gay rights movement matter why should I contribute the odd dollar why should I go on the March why should I read a political paper from the gay point of view uh then they too are missing out because there are millions of gays and lesbians in this country uh who are not lucky enough to go to clubs and bars who D pick up your your magazine uh who feel they would be sacked from their job if it were known they were gay and uh you only realize you've got a responsibility those to those people who you'll never meet uh when you realize that you've got a responsibility to yourself and that responsibility is to get out of the closet and uh we all know it's not easy but when you do you'll find there are so many friends there to support you and help you so that's my message now we are shouting our own words we are a community we are a society we are everyone we are inside you remember all you were taught to forget we are part of the new world hi I'm Wesley SNS hello I'm Susan sandon this is Pula cler David Marshall Grant cron Jason Alexander we're Betty and you're watching you're watching you watching America's Emmy nominated Gay and Lesbian News Magazine in the life in the life in the life now I think that's [Music] fabulous Sabrina sojer made history as the first out African-American lesbian to be elected to the US Congress as a non-voting or Shadow representative from the District of Colombia this is Brookland this is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the District of Columbia and it's originally was the suburbs of Washington DC I have lived here for five out of the six years that I've been living in Washington DC Brookland is about 70% black uh about 6 to 8% Latino has about 2% Asian and then the rest flight and that is about what the demographics of this of Washington DC are I moved here 6 years ago and I suddenly had to face something I had to give up my right to having representation in the House of Representatives and in the Senate pressional delegation chrisy speaking may I help you as the US Shadow representative from DC Sabrina is lobbying to gain representation all right there are a lot of people who really don't know that we don't have a vote in the House of Representatives and don't know that we don't have any Senators they don't think about it and they just don't know and so our big job is to raise the education level and the understanding level of both people in the Congress and in the country and around the world ironically Washington DC home of the federal government is the only place in the country whose citizens have no voice all decisions that impact the district are made by Congress none of whom represent the district there are literally thousands of decisions that are made that fully and solely impact the District of Colombia the District of Colombia is one of the places and one of the jurisdictions that allows adoption by lesbian and gay couples and every year that there's a Congress that doesn't like us that those particular regulations are put in Jeopardy and Congress should have nothing to say about that for Sabrina representing the interests of DC residents does not happen from behind a desk she goes to the source first stop Tyler Elementary School Kids Safe is a kids safety program want everybody to say 911 on three 1 2 3 911 hello boys and girls next stop a meeting at the University of the District of Colombia to strategize about securing a school budget threatened by the city financial control board okay it's outrageous that we in the district of Colombia should be deprived of public higher education access because people don't don't think that it's important for us to have it a late lunch was reserved for Robert Chan a student intern with the office of Asian American Pacific Islander Affairs Sabrina's ability to outreach to different communities reflects her own multiple identities I am a woman a single mother I'm a feminist I'm African-American I'm Cherokee and as chronicled in her book psychic scars and other mad thoughts I'm also a survivor of sex ual abuse and I think that all of those things have come together to create who I am in a way that gives me a depth and breath of understanding of of how oppression in particular works with all of these concerns Sabrina still has to face her own backyard last year I had done all of this tilling and planting anticipating spending my entire summer gardening and then you know a few Community people and some friends had this idea about me running for office and by the time I got all the petition signatures in all of this was like so incredibly overgrown it was amazing finally Sabrina's partner Leticia comes home to get ready for the evening's event so what's on TP for tonight the the dinner right yep and uh it's Black Tie optional so okay good well I don't have black [Music] TI if there was ever a moment in my life where I felt like the world with my oyster it is this moment certainly before I decided to do this no one saw an open African-American lesbian in this kind of a political [Music] position I know that you've entrusted me with not just your vote and not just your personal support but a large expectation about doing something different with this position and I want you to know I'm going to do my best not to let you down thank [Music] [Applause] you Sabrina remains active in gay and minority causes although she is no longer with her partner she is now a grandmother and plans to publish a new collection of her writing later this [Music] year [Music] still to come on in the Life a gay judge lays down the law this matter is a jury and Tammy Baldwin Goes to Washington but first the leaders we profiled in the first half of the show were all based in Washington d DC but gay man and lesbians have risen to power in places throughout the country including some that might surprise you bunston Missouri is about as far away from the Beltway as you can get when it comes to gay of visibility or so we thought until author Neil Miller traveled there in 1995 and met the town's long-term [Music] mayor I grew up in Cooper County um pretty much I come here when I was six been here the rest of my life never left except for Vietnam I would describe bunson as a very small farming community in the center of the heart of Missouri I knew I was gay probably at the age of 12 well it was pretty rough because there was everybody was very very closeted about it and I thought actually I thought I was the only one so I met Larry Through The Advocate I put an ad in the advocate and uh we met on Labor Day weekend and I knew right then I was in love and I wanted him with me the rest of my life so he moved in a month later and we've been together 22 years everywhere we went we were together we never kissed in public or held hands but we were together all the time and people just accepted him I'm sure there's people definitely would disapprove of my lifestyle but as a whole they know me and accept me for who I am and what I've done for the community I ran for mayor in the beginning CU there was things in this town that weren't getting done I wanted senior housing I wanted a good fire department I'm in my eighth term now which is over 15 years of mayorship in the community here I have to work elsewhere for a living bunston p me $3 a year as mayor when I get 20 years in I think that's enough which should be 10 terms I think somebody else should do it for a while then you're known as the the mayor with his hand out is that true I think down in Jeff City they they refer to me as the mayor with his hand up because I'm always down here for Grants and and any monies that are available so as an as a small town with a lot of minorities and uh lowincome and elderly we qualify so I pursue it right the first first thing I applied for was a housing rehab Grant on the south side of 268,000 um then we applied for another well I got 10,000 or 58,000 for that and I got 10,000 for a park $350,000 for sewer Lagoon system and the latest is another housing Rehab on the north side of town of 211,000 which puts it over a million dollars the Caboose has been my latest project since our town was founded on the railroad the railroad was actually here before the town I thought that would be an important piece of History to have so I pursued that and Union Pacific saw fit to donate us a caboose and we've got it and got it painted and we're working now to finish the inside and make a museum out of it I don't see myself as a role model at all but I think the gay community does see me that way they think I'm important I don't I think I'm just a human being like everybody else and trying to do what's right for my community I do things totally different I'm sure than than most in the gay community I believe that you can kill people with kindness I would like to see the gay community reach out and build a bridge between themselves and the straight Community because we all have to be together we have to live together we have to work together and we have to form a community together currently Jean is running for his 12th term as mayor he's already served 21 consecutive years and he and his partner Larry have been together for 20 [Music] 9 I'll never forget the moment when I first fell in love for me it was as if I had been eating hamburgers all my life and probably hot dogs is a better metaphor and then suddenly someone gave me the most Exquisite the most delicious Fon which for a vegetarian is kind of a strange metaphor but in that moment I knew in my heart I knew in my soul I knew in every fiber and every cell of my body that being gay wasn't wrong and it wasn't sinful and it wasn't an illness and it wasn't an Abomination and in fact it was so beautiful that from that day on there wasn't a priest there wasn't a minister there wasn't a rabbi an Imam or even a pope in this world that could tell me otherwise I'm Christian the laerta and you're watching in the Life in recent years a number of openly gay men and lesbians have been appointed to Federal positions for our gay pride 2000 episode Jonathan Kart reported on a judge whose appointment was a landmark decision recent legal G for gay men and lesbians seem to indicate a shift in attitude toward public acceptance from the civil union law in Vermont that grants samesex couples many of the benefits of marriage to the legal challenge against the anti-gay policy of the Boy Scouts of America that has reached all the way to the United States Supreme Court another barometer in this shifting climate is the number of federal appointments of openly gay and lesbian public servants in our next segment we profile one such individual a judge who presides over a federal Federal bench in New York City my name is Deborah a bat and my title is United States district judge for the southern district of New York okay how many doctors have been involved as a district court judge I have jurisdiction over an incredible variety of cases I have civil cases as well as criminal cases The Honorable Deborah batz became the country's first openly gay federal judge in 1994 having been recommended for the bench by Senator Daniel Patrick moan of New York I was asked if I would be interested in submitting an application to be considered for a federal uh District Court judgeship uh I was delighted I said yes I was sent the application uh I filled it out uh I met with Senator moyan however change in the country's political climate was necessary before the application was given serious consideration the bush Department of Justice or Administration felt that while they thought I was very nice that my view of what a federal judge should be was not uh what their view of a federal judge should be the president of the United States when President Clinton was elected in 1992 bat's nomination finally moved forward early on the administration made clear that they wanted to seek out a diverse slate of candidates including openly gay or lesbian candidates for the federal bench finally I was nominated by President Clinton and I was sworn in as a federal district court judge June 23rd 1994 which was during gay pride week the ease with which an openly gay candidate won confirmation to the federal bench took many legal observers by surprise please be seated still many felt that her confirmation had more to do with her credentials than it did with a tolerant Congress bats was an openly lesbian tenur professor at forom law school who had taught there for I think 10 or more years and um had a very uh prestigious resume before that she was a prestigious Law Firm she worked at the US attorney this matter is adjourned bats studied government at Radcliffe College then went on to graduate from Harvard Law School at a time when radical changes were sweeping the country I think that the timing of it the assassination of Robert Kennedy the assassination of Martin Luther King the Vietnamese War the uh uh problems that the country was roiling in at that time that was a very very strong influence uh in terms of deciding that that's what I wanted to do so that's why I wound up uh in law school at the time Presidential appointments to the federal bench are decidedly political and are part of an administration's Legacy but bat says a judge's job is to steer clear of polic politics and offer a fair interpretation of the law are they coming in tomorrow the federal judgeship is a lifetime appointment but I do think that the system of checks and balances Works judges stay out of the policymaking role have I done this one before and get into The Fray or come into action once the legislature has done its job one place where bats is able to be more vocal on the ways gays and lesbians continue to be denied equal protection under the law is that for University where she is a visiting Professor her courses have focused on family law marriage and adoption if we all agree that families and marriage for instance uh provides positive uh effects on the individuals who are part of them uh then one might wonder what legitimate interest uh the state would have in in preventing individuals who wish to uh take advantage of those relation ship so listen guys if we could come in in about 5 or 10 minutes or so and do the sign as as a private person and as a mother all right great uh anybody who wants to do and experience what I have should be given every opportunity to do so working toward getting more openly gay and lesbian individuals appointed at the federal level is a slow and contentious process but a crucial one that can lead to social change there are ways that judges can create social change them one is simply by the example of that they are there and that they are in a very revered prominent position in our society as an openly gay person and in of itself that is social change and it inspires social change a judge requires being viewed as fair and impartial so that political action is is something that we are not really able to do as judges but we still are people on the next edition of In The Life saving lives in the LA Unified School District that's what project 10 meant to me and if it wasn't for that I think a lot of us would have ended up dead a lot of us would have killed ourselves fighting for rights in the aftermath of 911 and Harvey Farin rattles the closet door carry up carry up Tammy Baldwin's election to the House of Representatives in 1998 proved that a politician can be out and still get elected and the historic and sometimes contentious race brought a little more diversity to the house on Capitol Hill tired we our right one of the most important fights being waged in the area of human rights in the world today is the fight in America over gain lesbian rights the progress we make really resonates worldwide and Tommy bdn is ideally placed to be a major participant in that fight how much do we value our children our families and the professionals who care for them because she is such a good combination of of tough-mindedness and idealism yeah we should a native of Madison Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin began her career in elective politics 12 years ago serving four terms in the Dayne County Board of Supervisors and three terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1998 the 36-year-old open lesbian decided to go National on Tuesday November 3rd send Tammy Baldwin to Congress I've always been very excited by public service at some point I asked a question of myself would would I be um more um influential would I have more impact and effect if I stayed in the Wisconsin State Legislature or if I took this risk in this leap and I I ultimately determined that I could have a bigger impact if elected to congress we need people like Tammy Baldwin who will remind us who will challenge us who will constantly tell us that we can do better though she received early support from first lady Hillary rodm Clinton there were still questions about whether being an out lesbian made Tammy Baldwin a viable candidate in my campaign for congress um there was a moment during the primary election where I thought um we weren't going to be able to talk about anything else it was a six-way Republican primary and one candidate got involved in that race bound and determined to make the issue the only issue in his campaign when he did so he was so universally criticized and condemned for making this an election about um about hate politics um that in many ways that issue uh disappeared as a central theme Tammy Baldwin will take on issues that congressmen don't deal with voters were pretty clear about telling me what they were concerned about people were talking to me about Healthcare and they were talking to me about education like fighting to protect our senior social security from Risky Wall Street investment schemes and ensuring that our kids will have a guaranteed quality public education the thing that was most distinct about Tammy was her refusal to be trapped in the corners of American politics what made her campaign unique was a determination to play it her way John Nichols from Madison's Capital times wrote some of the earliest Pro Baldwin editorials so often in any media coverage it would say Tammy Baldwin comma the first openly lesbian candidate for congress from Wisconsin comma that was like her full name right but as the campaign went on that started not appearing anymore and um she was able to break through and be referred to as Tammy Baldwin Democratic candidate for congress so there's a real ambivalence now Tammy Baldwin was also endorsed by Congressman Barney Frank and the gay and lesbian Victory fund which raised more than $100,000 for her campaign we have been helping Tammy certainly from day one but at every level uh giving her technical support if she needed it uh serving as a resource here in Washington serving as a cheerleader quite honestly is a big deal uh you know getting the message out there that she can win in addition to the support of the power players in Washington an estimated 3,000 volunteers were recruited locally if you went into her campaign office there were people who were over 70 stuff and envelopes but there were also tremendous number of people in their late teens early 20s some of whom took off a semester of college just to work for tamy Bal I had an internship at the campaign through the political science department and basically I would go there about 10 hours a week during the spring semester my role was that I worked on on campus trying to essentially get the people in the dorms the people who had just moved to the Madison area to goow out and vote I formed the student organization students for Tammy Baldwin and basically starting to recruit volunteers students to get excited about the campaign student vote was an amazing aspect of our campaign aign we paid attention to campus um and and really made a connection that was very very important once students graduate a lot of times they don't have health care coverage and so um that was something that Tammy talked about a lot that what are you going to do when you turn 25 or 24 you graduate you don't have health [Music] [Applause] insurance on campus on Election night on November 3rd there were lines of people waiting to vote they had underestimated how many people would turn out and they ran out of ballots in Ward after Ward we did it and through our activism commitment and hopefulness we also made a little [Music] history it really was such a milestone it was one of the happiest moments of my life I think when Tammy baldon won I couldn't believe uh that it was really happening for a long long time that evening and in fact delayed coming over to the victory party until uh almost all the numbers were in and that we were absolutely certain allow me to introduce to you the new congresswoman from the second district of Wisconsin Tammy bway having someone like Tammy who was out and who was as respected as she undoubtedly will be who will be so articulate uh they'll see her and they'll see her as a very effective congresswoman who is not at all embarrassed or unwilling to note the fact that she's lesbian she has that ability to to disarm people and I think that is one of the best benefits she will bring uh to the dialogue in in Washington we have shown that in politics it's okay to dream about the future we want to create da and lesbians in America have fought a lot of fights to be let in the room Tammy Baldwin I think is talking about a Next Step where gays and lesbians are accepted as human beings at the table every time I've taken a risk in politics be it on an issue or uh running for office myself there have always been a group of cynics or naysayers saying you know it can't be done um this has never been done before when I first started in politics I was told I was too young uh at other points in time I was told that I was too Progressive um you know a woman had never been elected an out lesbian had never been elected there were always reasons not to do it sure there were days I didn't know whether this could happen or not there were many such days but I always had Faith one of the um sayings that we repeated over and over in the campaign was um the the famous quote from Anthropologist Margaret me who never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world world indeed it's the only thing that ever can for all of us HD in the life thank you for watching and we'll see you next month [Music] [Music] in the life is funded in part by the H vanan amaran Foundation additional support provided by the Gil Foundation The Pride Foundation the Ted Snowden Foundation the auto haaz charitable trust the Collingwood Foundation the rainbow endowment William J Resnik and the annual support of in the Life members [Music] IQ