At the same time San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is running to be California’s lieutenant governor, is moving away from the same-sex marriage debate that made him a national name, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is acknowledging he didn’t do enough on the issue and is saying he’ll do more for the gays.
For Newsom, it’s about his image as he seeks a higher office, he tells the Times.
Mr. Newsom acknowledged in an interview on Wednesday that he had made a choice to be less outspoken on same-sex marriage compared with past years. He said his new tone reflected how the debate had matured and was not a sign that he had changed his commitment to the issue. “This movement has nothing to do with me; I’m just a small part of it,” Mr. Newsom said. “This thing is at a completely different level now. What we needed to do in 2004 was to put a human face on it, and I think we achieved that goal. Now let’s take the politics and the politicians out of it.”
[…] Even as Mr. Newsom rode the marriage issue to national prominence — defying Democratic Party leaders like Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Senator Dianne Feinstein, who argued that pushing for same-sex marriage legalization was “too much, too fast, too soon” — he got a taste of the dangers inherent in playing a lead role on such a volatile issue. In 2004, after Mr. Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, some Democratic Party elders blamed him for riling the conservative base and contributing to the failure of Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign.
For Fenty, meanwhile, says he’s going to do the exact opposite and get more involving in publicly backing LGBT equality. In an interview with the Washington Blade:
Washington Blade: What do you see as some of your main accomplishments in addressing issues of concern to the LGBT community?
Adrian Fenty: I think gay marriage and marriage equality is the biggest thing to happen over the past three-and-a-half years. When the bill was introduced, I think it meant a lot to the people who introduced it and to the community that I expressed my full support and that I said I would sign it as soon as it came to my desk. I think that left a lot of people feeling very certain that it would move fast through the local government, which I think helped prevent naysayers in the federal government and Congress from being opposed to it.
We’ve also been very supportive of GLBT businesses. We’ve been very supportive of equality in the workplace, in hiring. The chief [D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier] has done a fantastic job in really trying to address some of the hate crimes that are sometimes being committed against our GLBT neighbors. So it’s been a great four years and we’re really looking forward to the next four years in a second term after the Democratic primary.
Blade: Some of your critics in the LGBT community who are backing Vincent Gray say you have not been as visible as they would prefer in speaking out on a number LGBT-related issues, including hate crimes, and that you haven’t attended many LGBT events. Is that a fair criticism?
Fenty: Yes, it is a very fair criticism. It’s actually probably extremely fair. I’ve got to do a much better job being more visible in my second term, and I will.
Fair to say, then, that for the time being Fenty is content with running the nation’s capital and won’t be gunning for a higher office just yet.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Mike
I think Newsom has done enough and I mean ENOUGH.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
Another example of Queerty’s ongoing struggle between writing like responsible adults or writing like immature, potty-challenged children.
Here, the Immature, Potty-Challenged Child won.
[img]
http://www.themomsbuzz.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/29/potty_training_3.jpg%5B/img%5D
Drake
Fenty has been the best mayor on gay/lesbian issues that we have ever had. He actively worked for marriage equality, not just lip service, despite strong Catholic Church opposition ( the Archbishop threatened that Catholic Charities would have to close down if they had to have married gay employees working under city contracts, in which the Church had promised to honor the DC Human RIghts Acrt.)
Despite all this support, the prissy gay Gertrude Stein Democratic Club is supporting Fenty’s opposition in the primary in September. This is a very bad message to politicians who support us.
Fenty has been one of the best mayors on a long list of issues. The opposition (Vincent Gray) is backed by all the non-productive or unqualified public school employees and teachers who were fired. Following their dismissals and replacements, DC school have markedly improved.
The entire glbt community should be supporting Fenty.
mikey
Straight, relatively-conservative, rich young guy who is Mayor of SF decides to do something he absolutely didn’t need to do: stand up for gay people and issue marriage licenses to them.
In the process, Gavin jumpstarts a national debate and same-sex marriage movement that even Gay Inc didn’t support.
Gavin is then slapped down by the courts, then vindicated by the courts, and then goes on TV in a moment of victory and joy and declares that gay marriage is coming, “whether you like it or not.”
That single moment of immature gloating became a big, effective, and key sound-bite for the pro-Prop 8 side during the election.
Cut Gavin some slack, he’s been an amazing friend to our community, a better friend than HRC and their pandering ilk, and he has learned the hard way that sometimes quieter is better.
Cam
@Drake:
Agreed, Gray did an after hours backroom deal to kill the trolly program even though it was alreadly mostly paid for. Trying to funnell that money elsewhere. Only thousands of outraged phone calls to his office stopped it. Even Marion Barry complained that it was a shady deal. Yes, Marion Barry. so after that there was no way I would vote for Gray for anything.
The gays complaining about Fenty say things like “Well he didn’t speak out loud enough when the city council had the marriage bill in front of them.” Um, the bill passed 11-1. He didn’t have to, he said he’d sign it and knew it would pass. But interestingly enough, the same group that is attacking Fenty for not being loud enough, will attack anybody who dares say that Obama needs to be stronger on gay issues. Their completely hypocritical attitudes are mind blowing.
mike
Except for President, there is basically no “higher office” that Fenty can run for unless he moves. DC is unrepresented in Congress, and doesn’t have a state government distinct from the city government.
There is some kind of Congressional observer position, but it’s not clear that it’s particularly a better job than mayor.
Black Pegasus
I wanna Fuck Adrian Fenty!
…oh, sorry but, what was this thread about again?
Bill Perdue
Why Is SF Mayor Gavin Newsom Retreating?
Because he’ll do anything to further his career, just like Obama, who once supported same sex marriage but quickly morphed into a bigot to get votes.
Pretending that politicians of either party are our fiends is as unproductive as planting a crop on a sand dune. As soon as the wind shifts…
Black Pegasus
@Bill Perdue: Oh shut your pie hole sally!
Is everything about President Obama to you? Did you take a shower today? or did Obama cut your water off?
*rolls eyes*
John (CA)
There’s a belief within the Newsom camp that, were it not for same-sex marriage, he would be at the top of the California Democratic ticket in 2010 rather than relegated to the dutiful role of “running mate” as a consolation prize.
I don’t think Prop. 8 was the only reason his gubernatorial campaign failed though.
Bill Perdue
@Black Pegasus: @Black Pegasus: Enraged Obots get way too obsequious and defensive when it comes to their bigot hero, Obama.
Obama passed out TARP funds to the looter class while busting unions, protecting BP in the Gulf, and forcing austerity on working people.
Obama is the anti-LGBT bigot who sabotaged same sex marriage in California and whose BBFs are named Rich Warren and McClurkin.
Obama is responsible for the murder of civilians and GIs in Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq as the US fights to steal their oil and resources.
Obama is the enemy.
Now go back to your fantasies.
Black Pegasus
@Bill Perdue: Go clip your Toe Nails and have some Tea.. Life is too short to be an angry queen.
Bill Perdue
@Black Pegasus: But apparently not too short to be a worshipful, unquestioning bigot lover.
Black Pegasus
@Bill Perdue: No, it’s not..
I’d lick Obama’s Musty Nuts, and rim his Bubblelicious Ass
if he blessed me with the opportunity..Then I’d thank him
for allowing me to be in the same room with him without being
shot to death by his security detail.
*Lick Lick*
edgyguy1426
You two: get a room already! I’ve seen enough Tracy/Hepburn movies to know how this turns out! (laughing)
Daddy Grace Fish Sandwich
King Fenty is a bottom and he’s a snow “Queen”. All the black children is District know this about him.
WARD1NDC
King Fenty is a bottom and he’s a snow “Queen”. All the black children in District know this about him.
hephaestion
Fenty has been pretty darn good on gay issues in DC, but his predecessor (Anthony Williams) was also a strong supporter of gay marriage, and Williams also named a gay man to be Attorney General of DC, and he got the police chief (Ramsey) to form the gay police unit at Dupont Circle. Williams also marched in many gay pride parades.
Fenty’s opponent, Vincent Gray, is also for gay marriage. So we are lucky to have so many pro-gay leaders in DC. The entire city council could be called pro-gay, and our congresswoman (Norton) is also notably pro-gay.
TanyaHyde
@WARD1NDC:
“King Fenty is a bottom and he’s a snow “Queen”. All the black children in District know this about him.”
I’m not a fan of the term; “silly faggot” but sometimes, just sometimes it works….
Frank
So tired of the poor minorities who are thankfully retreating from DC bitching that a mayor is not ‘black’ enough! Fenty’s done a great job as did Tony Williams. If you don’t like it, get the fuck out of the city…
Cam
@Bill Perdue: said..
@Black Pegasus: @Black Pegasus: Enraged Obots get way too obsequious and defensive when it comes to their bigot hero, Obama.
Obama passed out TARP funds to the looter class while busting unions, protecting BP in the Gulf, and forcing austerity on working people.
Obama is responsible for the murder of civilians and GIs in Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq as the US fights to steal their oil and resources.
_______________________
Just a quick correction Bill, and this is coming from somebody completely dissillusioned with Obama, but I don’t think it helps to make up facts or exagerate.
TARP was pushed and signed by President Bush, remember, John McCain suspended his campaign to come back to Washington to push for it, Obama did not. It was a done deal before the campaign was over.
Blaming Obama for anything going on in Palestine is ridiculous. They’ve been at each others throats there since the 1950’s. (And for a thousand years before that if you count fallen empires etc…)
Your comments about Afghanistan and other countries are on point but those two facts are off.
Cam
@WARD1NDC: said…
King Fenty is a bottom and he’s a snow “Queen”. All the black children in District know this about him.
_________________________________
Yeah, and they all know that because the Gray campaign has gone around smearing him with a whisper campaign no doubt. All this shows us is that you and your friends in DC will attack with lies when you have nothing else to go after a candidate for. Marion Barry was picked up and arrested for coke several times. Please do not try to tell us, that if Fenty’s political enemies knew that Fenty was taking drugs that he wouldn’t have been busted.
Nice try though. It’s sad, some people in DC still seem to miss the Marion Barry style of running the place which was. “It doesn’t matter if the city is corrupt and going down the toilet, as longas Barry shows up at my ladies church meeting smiles at us and tells us how important we all are.”
Peter DC
DC Mayor Adrian Fenty has gone back on nearly all his pledges to the LGBT community in DC. Contrary to what is written he never spoke out on civil marriage-equality during the entire time the DC Council debated the issue. Neither he nor anyone from his administration testified in favor of it.
His administration tried to exempt the Prison system from the DC Human Rights Act to deny transgender inmates their rights. He doesn’t speak out on hate crimes and even when in the last few months when there have been 8 crimes against the LGBT community including one murder- he has yet to speak out.
He promised to do a Mayor’s LGBT economic development summit and then refused to have his name on it and even though a summit has been held for the past three years he has never found time to attend one of them.
He went back on his promise to keep the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit of the MPD intact.
He refuses to attend LGBT events and thinks marching in the Pride Parade and coming to the High Heel Race is doing something.
He has been silent on LGBT issues throughout his term in office. He did sign the marriage-equality bill when it was presented to him as veto-proof and kept his commitment to sign it. The DC Attorney General has defended it in court and we need to thank Peter Nickles for that.
Giving Fenty credit for the progress made on LGBT issues is a joke. I actually drafted much of his platform when he ran in 2006 and know how many promises he has broken. He has never used the bully pulpit he has to speak out on any LGBT issue.
Whatever credit one wants to give Fenty for his time as Mayor in DC don’t give him credit for what he hasn’t done and he hasn’t lived up to his committment to the LGBT community that helped elect him.
His last minute mea culpa in the Washington Blade is a joke. It is a political trick people shouldn’t fall for. There is a old and true saying; Fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice shame on me. I hope the LGBT community won’t be fooled again.
Bill Perdue
@Cam: Cam, you have to remeber that TARP, from beginning to end is a bipartisan effort. Tarp does not belong to ust Bush, it belongs even more to Obama. TARP was a bipartisan effort supported by Bush, Obama and McCain and implemented by Obama. It’s a total failure.
The maximum estimated cost of the bipartisan Bush-Obama TARP give away will be $4,635 per working American. Even without knowing that figure protests opposing the Bush-Obama bailout occurred in over 100 cities across the United States on Thursday September 25.
On September 24, 2008 McCain and Obama, issued a joint statement about TARP, saying that “The effort to protect the American economy must not fail.” In a survey conducted September 19–22 by Bloomberg/LA Times Americans opposed the giveaway by a margin of 55 percent to 31 percent.
In October Obama, soon to be President-elect, spent the weekend before the TARP vote joining Bush and McCain to phone wavering Congress members, twisting arms to get votes. Congress was nervous about passing TARP because phone calls and faxes were overwhelming against it. It passed 74-25 in the Senate and 263-171 in the House mostly because of Democrat votes.
BTW, Cam, Cain tried to get both campaigns suspended because he was getting trounced and because his blunder with Palin was beginning to cost him big time.
Then Cam says Blaming Obama for anything going on in Palestine is ridiculous. That’s wrong. The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats and Republicans continue to fund the apartheid and ethnic cleansing strategies used against Palestinians. Palestinians are murdered with American weapons.
B
One might point out that Newsom is running for lieutenant governor and voters by and large are going to want to know what he plans to do to help solve the state’s problems. It’s counterproductive for him to talk about same-sex marriage – everyone knows what his position on that is and he has a fixed budget for advertising, so he has to concentrate on telling the voters what he’ll do for the state.
Also, with Prop 8 now declared unconstitutional, there is really nothing for him to do on same-sex marriage, depending on how the appeal turns out.
Bill Perdue
Black Pegasus Enraged Obots get way too obsequious and defensive when it comes to their bigot hero, Obama.
Obama passed out TARP funds to the looter class while busting unions, protecting BP in the Gulf, and forcing austerity on working people.
Obama is the anti-LGBT bigot who sabotaged same sex marriage in California and whose BBFs are named Rich Warren and McClurkin.
Obama is responsible for the murder of civilians and GIs in Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq as the US fights to steal their oil and resources.
Obama is the enemy.
Now go back to your fantasies.
————-
Why Is SF Mayor Gavin Newsom Retreating?
Because he’ll do anything to further his career, just like Obama, who once supported same sex marriage but quickly morphed into a bigot to get votes.
Pretending that politicians of either party are our fiends is as unproductive as planting a crop on a sand dune. As soon as the wind shifts…
B
For the people criticizing Newsom, read
http://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Li-Ou/Newsom-Gavin.html
and
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2009/04/newsom-dad-desc.html
(the latter for some of the personal pressure Newsom got when he allowed same-sex marriages in 2004). He had a lot of people telling him “no”, including relatives.