The Democratic Convention, Gay Activists & the FBI

Last night, a former President, Clinton, spoke to the delegates of the 2008 Democratic convention about the need to get behind the ticket (and I couldn't agree more). But the moment that stopped me was when he mentioned gay rights as an equal to other important issues. Given that the Clintons and Barack Obama do not support marriage rights, well, it's a quibble since there is so much more that must come first, including ENDA. However, I wanted to bring up a little history, going back to the convention of 1972, when Gay Activists went to protest at the Democratic National Convention.

The FBI, which was under the control of the closeted and self-hating J. Edgar Hoover, was (and most likely still is) infiltrating political groups like the Gay Activists Alliance at the time. And one of their domestic spies reported that gay activists were planning to bring hand guns and rifles to a demonstration at the convention. Can you think of anything more preposterous? Nevertheless, you can see it yourself in black and white, below, in a document released as part of FOIA requests:

As a former member of GAA I can't tell you how bizarre this is to read. All the more disturbing is the list (see below) that the FBI complied of delegate activists from GAA organizations around the country — it includes the name of Marc Wald, who was also a member of Gay Youth when I was chair, and eventually was chair of the group himself for a brief time. I figure I'm going to come across my name sooner or later in FOIA documents. After all, what could be more threatening to the mindset of those who believe in a police state than an out and proud queer Jew?

I am glad there are security people at today's convention — they managed to catch and prevent an assassination attempt. But given the arrests at the protests at the RNC convention in NY 4 years back, arrests that were all thrown out of court recently, one can only wonder what the state security apparatus is doing (apart from using AT&T to bug all our phones). And how much the Democrats can really affect this steady erosion of rights and privacy.

Don't get me wrong, I am amazed to see how far the gay movement has come in the years since the 1972 convention. But to quote my favorite red-headed president, Thomas Jefferson: eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Which means watching the watchers.

Comments

[Todd HellsKitchen]

Just wait til Miss Thing from Alaska makes her homo hating views known... She'll be a classic...