(l to r) David Huskey; New Hanover, N.C.
County
Commissioner Julia Boseman; Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Mayor Daniel Stewart;
Victory Fund Board Member
Pamela Lawton Wilson; Assemblymember
Christine
Kehoe; and Victory Fund Board Member Bill Beck
Over 80 people attended the third annual San Diego luncheon of the San Diego chapter of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund — a national organization that works to train and elect qualified openly gay and lesbian candidates for political office. Guest speakers for the event were openly lesbian County Commissioner Julia Boseman, from New Hanover County, North Carolina, and openly gay Plattsburgh, New York, Mayor Daniel Stewart.
Though the overflow crowd created a temporary standing room only situation, all attendees were seated by the time Assemblymember Christine Kehoe took the podium to thank those involved with organizing the lunch, including San Diego-based Victory Fund board members Bill Beck and Pamela Lawton Wilson.
Touting the organization in it’s eleventh year, Kehoe said, “I’m tremendously grateful that you’re here supporting the Victory Fund with your checkbook and with your time today.”
As a measure of the Victory Fund’s efforts, Kehoe noted that California will likely have two openly gay men in the Legislature after November — John Laird, the former mayor of Santa Cruz, and San Francisco Supervisor, Mark Leno.
“I’m delighted to be looking forward to serving with them,” said Kehoe, who told the audience that Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson had recently announced the formation of a GLBT caucus in the California Legislature.
In her introduction to Julia Boseman, City Councilmember Toni Atkins — who was born in Virginia — said, “I’m really proud to see someone from North Carolina — a southern woman — elected to office…. We’re fortunate to say that there are people in the south, despite odds like having to deal with elected officials like Jesse Helms, (who) manage to get ahead.”
“You should be very proud of your success in California,” Boseman told lunch guests, referring to the recent passage of AB 25. “But I don’t think I need to tell you that North Carolina’s just a little bit different than it is here. I could not have won without the Victory Fund…. I went to Victory Foundation training. They helped me raise money. They sent a political consultant down to help me with my campaign and were with me every step of the way.
“You have given people in our area hope,” Boseman continued. “Jesse Helms is not the only hate-filled person in North Carolina. Before I was elected, one of the commissioners was sitting around making fun of me because I was gay. Hate is taught at home, so his son, in turn, went to school with his buddy and was just ruthless in teasing this young girl in high school…. Do you have any idea how empowering it was (for her) to go to school the day after the election and say, ‘Lesbian beat your daddy,’” the North Carolina attorney joked, receiving a round of applause.
“We have to be better candidates,” Boseman concluded. “I lost votes because I’m gay. Don’t kid yourselves. That is why it’s so important to have your support. We have to raise more money. We have to knock on more doors…. I got a call from the governor’s office a couple week’s ago. The governor has asked me to run for state senate. Did you ever think in North Carolina, that the governor was going to be calling a lesbian to run for Senate?”
Openly lesbian Superior Court Judge Bonnie Dumanis, a Republican who is running for San Diego County District Attorney, introduced Daniel Stewart, also a Republican.
Dumanis made light of the decision to have her introduce a fellow gay Republican. “Why do you think (that was)? Can anybody guess?” Dumanis asked. “Dan’s the only other Republican that I know, from afar, that would be willing to come into San Diego.”
“It’s been great to be in San Diego — I’ve never been here before,” the upstate New York mayor confessed. “Bill (Beck) picked me up at the airport and started to show me the sights — Marines sunbathing in front of the airport. It was a good start to a three day stay in San Diego.”
Initially elected to the Plattsburg City Council in 1993, and winning bids
for reelection twice before becoming mayor in 2000, the Rhode Island native went
on to make a personal confession of a more profound, revealing nature.
“My
high school was the first high school that allowed a gay couple to go to a prom
together,” Stewart recalled. “Aaron Fricke and Paul Guilbert — it was the class
of 1980. There was also one student that was very vociferous against those two
going to the prom, and that was me. I was the homophobe, anti-gay, on TV, on the
radio, in print, the whole thing, lashing out at the gays who were going to ruin
our prom. So that gives you a little background history about me. I went from
being a homophobe in high school to being the first openly gay elected mayor in
the state of New York’s history, and it’s been a strange road to travel in order
to get there.”
Stewart went on to recall how he spent eight years in the military after high school.
“I thought the military would make me go straight. I knew I was gay. I just thought I would go straight in the military, but little did I know men in uniform would have an affect on me,” Boseman jested, “so, I continued on.
After spending four years in South Dakota, Stewart ended up at Plattsburg Air Force Base in New York. (Plattsburg, he explained, is 60 miles south of Montreal and 300 miles north of New York City).
Stewart said his affiliation with the Victory Fund began on his second city council campaign. Though he said support in his races had been strong, he ultimately wanted to create a relationship with the Fund.
“For many, many years, gays and lesbians used to leave small town America to go to the big city (where) they would be able to live in the villages and the ghettos and be able to live that way and have large communities,” said Stewart. “Well, back home, we’re fighting for our rights and I truly believe that we are winning that fight. And it’s only through the Victory Fund and groups — in New York I’m supported by Log Cabin New York— (that this has happened.) The Victory Fund has never stopped giving to me. If I pick up the phone and call (Executive Director) Brian Bond, he immediately calls back, (and says), ‘What do you need?’ They’re right there for me. If I need advice on some political situation ... I can call them or I can call Log Cabin and that’s a great asset to have — especially when we’re dealing with small town politics….”
During a brief question and answer period at the end, one audience member asked Stewart, “Have you had the chance to run into the two young men whose lives you terrorized and what was their reaction, under the circumstances?”
Stewart said he had been in contact with one of them. “In 1996, after being reelected to council again, I received a call from the Rhode Island Pride organizer and he said, ‘Are you the same Dan Stewart that went to school in Cumberland in 1980 and I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ He said, ‘Well, do you think maybe it’s time you come back and tell us what’s happened here?’ So I attended the Providence, Rhode Island Pride event there and … in front of about 5,000 people, I made a public apology for what I had done 17 years earlier,” Stewart recalled. “It was a very difficult speech, but it was that final monkey off my shoulder…. I attempted to reach out to Aaron Fricke through the years, (and received) no response, but I have talked to Paul and he holds no ill will. You know, in 1980, we were a little different then and the world was a little different. They were pioneers, and I was scared.” •