Bay Windows - September 7, 2006
Laura Kiritsy, lkiritsy@baywindows.com

The organization recently questioned the contestants in the race for Nuciforo's Berkshire, Hampshire and Franklin District seat - Ben Downing, Christopher Hodgkins, Helen Sharron, Margaret Ware and John Zelazo - on a range of LGBT-related issues including funding for LGBT youth programs, legal protections for transgender people, HIV/AIDS, same-sex marriage, and LGBT-inclusive school curricula. The candidates' completed questionnaires are posted on BSCC's website (www.berkshirestonewall.org). Sedarbaum, who chairs BSCC's Public Policy Committee said one aim of the queries was to make clear "to the political establishment that telling us you love us is not enough. We are a community just like any community with complex public policy issues." Simply voting to uphold the Goodridge decision in a constitutional convention doesn't cut it. "You need to be paying attention to funding streams, you need to be paying attention to which corners of state government are responding to the community appropriately - or if at all," says Sedarbaum.

The BSCC also hoped to stimulate some public discussion on LGBT issues by publicizing the questionnaires, an effort that, ironically, may be stymied by the fact that the candidates are nearly uniform in their support for the community's issues. "We might have made our point better if there was some division in the response to this," Sedarbaum concedes. Indeed, all of the candidates support the recent creation of a legislative commission on LGBT youth - thus removing it from the governor's purview - and maintaining funds for LGBT youth programs. On HIV/AIDS policy, the candidates roundly support gearing HIV prevention messages to specific populations even if they might offend some communities, the right to informed consent of all medical procedures, including HIV testing; over-the-counter sales of hypodermic needles (which has been shown to reduce HIV infection), comprehensive sex education and a return to code-based - as opposed to the current name-based - surveillance system of HIV infections. All stated their opposition to allowing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage to advance through the legislature, some more stridently than others: "NO," wrote Ware. "You don't put people's constitutional rights up to a vote. That way lies tyranny and madness." The five candidates also expressed support for including age-appropriate discussions of LGBT families in public school classrooms. The contenders were also asked which laws and state agency procedures should be amended to provide protections for transgendered people. Downing, Hodgkins (who, by the way, compiled a strongly pro-gay record during two decades as a state representative) and Ware expressed a preference for affording the same protections in state law that are provided to people based on sexual orientation. Sharron suggested employment law while allowing that there "may be other needs about which I am unaware but sensitive to"; Zelazo said he supports protecting transgender folks "but hedge on assistance to pay for expensive medical procedures."

Despite the candidates' overall support for protecting transgender people - an issue that is largely untested on Beacon Hill - Sedarbaum wasn't overly impressed with the response on the transgender question. "Well, for one thing," he says, "there's no knowing what answers they would have given if the transgender question were a little more thorny, like should the state pay for gender reassignment surgery for Medicaid recipients or prisoners?" Given the district's progressive bent, Sedarbaum notes, "you'd expect that candidates a.) want to be progressive and b.) not be afraid to be seen as progressive - they would of course say the most progressive thing. I don't think that anybody in their [responses] demonstrated some unique level of knowledge about the life of transgender people and I don't think anybody actually demonstrated any knowledge about which parts of state government or law might be more or less likely to deal with gender issues," Sedarbaum contends. "They've just generally taken the progressive position: 'We love you.'" That said, Sedarbaum says that LGBT voters will have the same difficulty choosing a candidate as the general electorate, given the fact that the candidates are just about of one mind on LGBT issues. "They're not going to be voting as gay voters," he says. "There's no gay issue to vote on.

"I'd say the main purpose of this is visibility," Sedarbaum concludes of the BSCC questionnaire. "We've got to keep reminding them that we're here."

"Stick with Dianne" or "Chang for Change"?

Who will voters stick with in the 2nd Suffolk Senate District, where incumbent Dianne Wilkerson, having fallen short of gathering the required number of signatures to get her name on the Democratic primary ballot, is now waging a sticker campaign for her seat? Wilkerson's gaffe prompted Samiyah Diaz, her Republican opponent, to mount a sticker campaign for the Democratic primary nomination, an unusual but not unprecedented attempt to keep Wilkerson off the November general election ballot. Things only got stickier, if you'll pardon the pun, when Democrat Sonia-Chang Diaz mounted a late-breaking sticker campaign for the seat.

In a recent editorial board meeting, Chang-Diaz, who worked as an aide to openly gay former state Sen. Cheryl Jacques, said she jumped in the race because she believes the district needs new leadership. "I fundamentally believe that voters deserve at least two things of our elected officials: one is someone who's going to represent our policy values in the State House and the other is someone who's going to uphold the highest standard of conduct," an apparent reference to Wilkerson's past failure to pay income taxes and the charges of campaign finance abuses leveled against her last year by Attorney General Tom Reilly. (Wilkerson has also had to fend off an allegation recently raised by the Boston Herald that she perjured herself last year while testifying in a hearing related to the manslaughter conviction of one of her nephews; Chang-Diaz has cautioned against rushing to judge Wilkerson on the allegation until all the facts are in.) Chang-Diaz touted her experience in the State House, her experience teaching in the Lynn Public School system, her community activism - she is a member of her Boston Ward 19 Democratic Committee, a board member of MassVOTE, a voting rights and election reform organization, and has done contract work for MassEquality - as qualifications to represent the Second Suffolk District. She acknowledged that while she and Wilkerson are both progressive Democrats who "in large part do share the same political views, with a few exceptions" she contends that the two "have different standards on accountability and ethics."

Wilkerson, who also met recently with Bay Windows' editorial board, said she takes responsibility for her failure to muster the requisite 300 signatures to get on the primary ballot. Though she fell just nine signatures short, rather than mounting an expensive challenge to validate the rejected signatures, she decided to save her resources for her re-election campaign. "We are completely and totally and focused on recruiting volunteers to work the polls on the 19th of September and educate the voters; to make contact in person, by phone, e-mail or face to face with ... registered voters and training our personnel for election day around what the process is." Of her other woes, she noted that the campaign finance charges leveled by Reilly stem from 2000 campaign finance reports; she said she has since put the proper safeguards in place to prevent problems in the future. She also acknowledged that the recent spate of negative attention has once again made her 1996 tax evasion conviction fodder as well. As to the Herald's recent reporting on her alleged perjury, Wilkerson said it's just not true. "I don't have any new stuff," she said with a wry laugh. "The signature [criticism] I think its legitimate."

One issue on which Chang-Diaz and Wilkerson - and Samiyah Diaz, for that matter - agree is gay civil rights, and Chang-Diaz, perhaps wisely, isn't looking to pick a fight about Wilkerson's record on the issue. The incumbent has been "an important ally," in the recent marriage equality battle, Chang-Diaz acknowledged. "I think we'll all agree on that and thank Sen. Wilkerson for her good work on this issue." Indeed Wilkerson's record of support on LGBT rights has been impeccable, from her sponsorship of domestic partnership legislation as a freshman legislator back in 1993 to the moving speech in support of marriage equality she delivered during the 2004 constitutional convention - support that drew the wrath of conservative clergy in her district. And while pundits and political observers have speculated that Wilkerson's current troubles may bring about her political demise, the LGBT community appears to be in Wilkerson's corner, evidenced by her endorsements from all of the state's major LGBT political organizations: Bay State Stonewall Democrats, the Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts, MassEquality, and the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. Facing perhaps the most serious challenge to her incumbency, Wilkerson says the LGBT community has been "phenomenal" in its support of her campaign at every level, from fundraising to phone banking to door knocking.

That's not to say Chang-Diaz doesn't have a credible record of support for the gay community. As Jacques' point person on civil rights issues, Chang-Diaz worked behind the scenes on the successful effort in 2002 to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage via a parliamentary maneuver, rounding up support and keeping a head count of votes to adjourn a constitutional convention without taking an up or down vote on the amendment. During her stint as a middle-school teacher in Lynn, Chang-Diaz said says she promoted a tolerant atmosphere in her classroom by making it clear to students that using slurs like "homo" and "fag" was unacceptable. "My students knew that if they were going to use those words as epithets in my classroom they would be after school and they would be reading articles about GLBT teens," Chang-Diaz, says with a laugh. She was enlisted to help out in the lead up to the March sessions of the 2004 constitutional convention, where the legislature was debating anti-gay marriage amendments, just days after wrapping up her job managing Angus McQuilken's special election campaign to succeed Jacques in the Senate, after Jacques left it to lead the Human Rights Campaign. McQuilken narrowly lost a bitterly fought race to Republican Scott Brown. And though Chang-Diaz didn't think she had "any juice left" for another political battle after McQuilken's intense campaign, she went right back to work when MassEquality came calling. "It was game time for the GLBT community and allies and it's an issue that I just care deeply about," says Chang-Diaz, "you just keep going to work, you drop back into the fray." Chang-Diaz was put to work on everything from media outreach to calling the organization's network of activists to shore up support and overseeing the delivery of pro-equality petitions to the Senate President's office. She was also among those who crowded the State House doors in the early morning hours on ConCon days jockeying with determined gay marriage opponents in order to ensure that marriage equality activist secured the most visible area to stage their all-day protests, a high-stakes task she likened to the annual "running of the brides" at Filene's Basement. As for the anti-gay marriage amendment currently pending in the legislature, Chang-Diaz said that while she believes the best outcome would be "for 151 legislators to stand up and cast a no vote for this hate-inspired amendment," because she feels the issue is one of fundamental civil rights, which should never be put to a popular vote, "I won't have reservation about stopping this amendment by other means."

Is the Second Suffolk District ready for a change? Chang-Diaz thinks so. The voters she has encountered, she said, don't see Wilkerson's troubles as old news. While they recognize that the incumbent has done "good and important work," said Chang-Diaz, "people are ready for something new. And leadership does mean more than casting good votes," she said. "Ethics and accountability are real things in politics."

Wilkerson counters that given her drive to deliver for her district she's bound to provoke criticism. Some it will be "deserved, legitimate," she said, and some of it won't be. Ultimately, Wilkerson said she has gotten results, simply by doing her homework and working hard. And even with the recent controversy, she said, "I have a better record of producing than anyone."

Silbert: 'Take me to the river'

In the race for lieutenant governor, Andrea Silbert has touted herself as "the jobs candidate," drawing on her experience as the founder and former CEO of the Center for Women and Enterprise, a nonprofit that helps women (and men, "if they behave," Silbert jokes) start and grow their own businesses. She's relentlessly promoted job creation as a means of revitalizing the state and stemming the exodus of the middle class to other states on the campaign trail. But in a recent editorial board meeting with Bay Windows Silbert exposed her crunchy side. She talked up her preference for Tevas, concern for the environment, the need for energy conservation and disclosed that she had recently confessed at the offices of the Boston Phoenix to being "an unabashed composting, tree hugging, kayaker." And while most readers would naturally expect "lesbian" to follow that string of adjectives - nevermind the Tevas - Silbert is straight. In fact, when her lesbianish self-description was noted with some suspicion, Silbert seemed surprised: "I thought the only thing with lesbians was the cats," she replied.

On a more serious note, well sort of, Silbert will be embarking on a Whistle Stop Kayak Tour and Floating Environmental Conference Sept. 9 and 10 in an effort to shine a light on her commitment to environmental issues and unveil a plan to make Massachusetts more environmentally-friendly. The tour will see Silbert paddling on the Dedham portion of the Charles River, the Mystic River in Somerville and into Lincoln on the Sudbury River. "It's flat water kayaking," says Silbert, attempting to entice a reporter to join the kayak brigade. "It's flat water, not white water. If you're nervous we'll put you in a kayak with somebody else so you don't have to just sit there. It'll be great," she promises. "Nobody else has talked about the environment."

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