Kwong Hui (left), a 2001 candidate for City Council, and Ben Santos (right) of the Log Cabin Republicans met gay Asians to discuss political involvement. (by Renee Michael)

Outing the vote: Nearly 100 people gathered at New York City’s Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center Oct. 18 to hear a panel discussion about the importance of voter turnout in the Nov. 7 election.

"Gay issues continue to play a symbolic and central role for the third election cycle in a row," said Sean Cahill, research and policy director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Policy Institute here in New York. "But the tone is very different from what we saw in 1992."

Among the distinctions he drew: there is more information now about the size and potential of the gay vote.

"The gay, lesbian, bisexual vote has emerged as a sizeable component of the vote," he said. "In 1998, it constituted 5 percent of the vote; that is the same size as the Latino vote, and two times that of the Jewish vote and the Asian American vote."

Ellen Ensig-Brodsky, the 66-year-old nutritionist who is executive director of Pride Senior Network and was the driving force behind the Pride Aging Resource Center, a health center for older gay people, observed that many of the issues on the table for older people in the mainstream media don’t speak much to gay seniors, such as the inheritance tax and the ability to keep the Social Security benefits of a deceased spouse.

Joseph DiFilippis drew some contrasts between presidential contenders George W. Bush and Al Gore on the issues that concern the Queer Economic Justice Network, but said homelessness and hunger have increased in New York City among the gay population. He also chastised presidential Bush and Gore — especially the latter — for their commitment to the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, which Gore has publicly supported and which DiFilippis cites as a cause of increased hunger and homelessness in New York.

"I’m not supposed to be partisan here, but there is one candidate here who thinks differently about health care, and that’s [Green Party presidential candidate] Ralph Nader," he said.

Andres Duque of Mano a Mano, a network of New York City-based Latino gay organizations and activists, talked about issues affecting gay people of color, while Terry Boggis, co-founder and director of Center Kids, talked about gay youth, gay parenting, and reproductive rights.

Meanwhile, campaign volunteers worked literature tables at the perimeter of the room, with representatives from Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats, the Human Rights Campaign, the Empire State Pride Agenda, the Nader campaign, the campaign of Independent/Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin, and the Gore/Lieberman campaign.

What’s at stake?: Voting isn’t the only way gay people are expected to get involved in the election, said Kwong Hui, a 2001 candidate for City Council District 1 (Chinatown and lower Manhattan). So he said Oct. 20 to an assemblage of an estimated 50 gay Asians and Pacific Islanders, who packed into a small conference room on the second floor of the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center for the two-hour session to answer the question, "What’s at stake in the elections for gay Asian Americans?"

"A lot of these people are not citizens at this point, but they still are affected by government simply by the fact that you do live here," said Hui. "You cannot vote: What should you do? Well, we’re not just seeking your vote. We’re seeking your participation. Whether you are voters or not you have to show that you care about this."

The event, sponsored by Gay Asian and Pacific Islander Men of New York, the Audre Lorde Project, the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS, the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association, and the Japanese Speaking LesBiGay Society, aimed to get out the vote among gay Asians, and inform participants about where the candidates stand on issues that affect gay Asians in particular — such as sponsoring partners for legal immigration to the U.S., political asylum for gay Asian immigrants, hate crimes legislation, and the targeting of funding for HIV/AIDS education and prevention in the gay Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

Most talkative was Hui, who, alongside Douglas Paul of Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats stumped for their party’s presidential ticket and New York Senate candidate.

Meanwhile Ben Santos of Log Cabin Republicans tried to sway those present toward the GOP, and another 2001 City Council candidate, Evergreen Chou, from Ralph Nader for President, introduced himself as a Green seeking the council seat from District 20 (Flushing).

The discussion was freewheeling and relaxed, as when Republican panelist Santos encouraged "liberals and progressives" in New York to cast their vote for Nader. Answering a question from an audience member who said she liked Nader but was worried that a Nader vote would open up room for a Bush victory, Santos said, "Not in New York."

"I think that liberals and progressives should vote for Nader," he added, saying the advice applied only to states where Gore had a clear margin of victory. "You have to vote your conscience. And you have to keep pressing the Democratic Party."

"Politics can make strange bedfellows," noted Hui.

Trans inclusion: At the meeting of Gay Asians and Pacific Islanders, Pauline Park, who sits on the board of GAPIMNY and heads up the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, questioned whether Democratic Senate candidate Hillary Clinton supports inclusion of transgender persons in national legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Park held up a missive she co-signed with two other NYAGRA members addressed to gay leaders — including state Sen. Tom Duane and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, as well as officers of Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats and gay City Councilmembers. It asks the letter recipients if they have approached Clinton on transgender issues.

"First, has any leader in the gay and lesbian community asked Mrs. Clinton to support the inclusion of transgender-specific language in either ENDA or the federal HCPA?" the letter said, in part. "And second, if no one has to date, would anyone be willing to do so now, with a new House and Senate due to take office only three months from now?"

As of this week, says Park, she has gotten no replies to her letter, a copy of which was also sent to Clinton campaign operative Kevin Finnegan. In a later interview, Park said she was generally impressed with the panelists at the affair, and that she would wait until after the upcoming election to contact Clinton’s aides or state party officials again — if Clinton wins.

Don’t ask, don’t tell — for doctors: Hillary Clinton addressed AIDS this week, if in an indirect fashion, when she unveiled several new points to a health plan — advanced earlier in her campaign — at the Hugh Doyle Center in New Rochelle.

Republican rival Rick Lazio has released several ads in recent weeks attacking Clinton’s 1994 health care proposals, and the bulk of both the candidates’ airtime in this tight race has of late been devoted to health care issues.

Clinton said she would fight for legislation that ensures privacy for personal medical records and health care-related information by requiring the consumer's consent for disclosure of both paper and electronic records to third parties.

"No American should have to worry that his or her medical records will be used to violate their privacy," she said. "Or that if they were to take some test that was medically necessary, that the results of that test could be used to discriminate against them in keeping and holding jobs or insurance."

This is important to people with HIV and AIDS who feel they cannot switch insurance carriers — or the jobs that offer plans with them — for fear that their HIV status will be taken as a "pre-existing condition," in turn exempting the insurance carrier from sharing the burden of increasingly expensive medical and personal costs associated with HIV and AIDS.

"Hillary believes that no one should be denied a job or insurance because of his or her medical history," said a statement released by her campaign the afternoon after Clinton made her remarks.

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October 27, 2000