Pride at home, shame abroad

PRESIDENT GEORGE W . Bush has never been a friend to the queer community. We have known this since the 2000 presidential debates when he opposed "special rights" for queers to mollify the religious right. We were reminded of his bedrock homophobia when he declined to rebuke Sen. Rick "I Have a Problem with Homosexual Acts" Santorum for comparing homosexuality to polygamy and incest. (Ari Fleischer then made it worse by claiming that Santorum is an "inclusive man.") Even more recently, Attorney General John Ashcroft tried to ban Gay Pride month at the Justice Department.

So why is it that when it comes to foreign policy, some queers have become flag blinded? Why give the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt on the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the so-called war on terror? Do Sept. 11 and reflexive fears of Islam still loom menacingly? Certainly, right-wing gay commentator Andrew Sullivan stokes such fears with epistles on the dangers of Middle Eastern Islamic fundamentalism for queers. Never mind that our "allies" in the region are just as viciously, and opportunistically, homophobic as the Taliban: Saudi Arabia executes gay men while Egypt rounds them up on morals charges.

Queers, of all people, have very good reasons to oppose U.S. military adventurism. Lets start with HIV/AIDS. "The [2002/3] budget proposal includes the largest-single year increase for defense in two decades but fails to increase funding for the minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Ryan White CARE Act programs and HIV prevention programs" the National Minority AIDS Council stated last year. This year Bush suggested cutting Ryan White programs, even as he pledged to increase overseas HIV/AIDS spending. "HIV is low on the priority list," said Laura Thomas, health planner with the S.F. Department of Public Health. "They don't want to fund any discretionary spending. They don't want to spend any money on poor people, health care, or housing."

Then there is the "war on terrorism" at home. In the heady days of ACT UP and Queer Nation, demonstrations and direct actions were organized that targeted pharmaceutical corporations, shut down the Golden Gate Bridge, and blockaded the Food and Drug Administration headquarters. Under the USA PATRIOT Act those protests could easily be termed domestic terrorism. The PATRIOT Act, said Sanjeev Bery of the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union, defines terrorism as anything that puts "life in jeopardy or attempts to coerce government policy in the territories of the United States."

What is direct action but an attempt to coerce government policy? And if you think that's paranoid, remember what happened when California's own "anti-terror" agency, the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center, got involved in antiwar protests at the Oakland docks. Using selective, biased, and partial information from CATIC, the Oakland Police Department opened fire on peaceful picketers and then fabricated lies about being attacked by the protesters.

Let's not forget the military's rank opportunism as a reason for queers to be dubious about supporting foreign wars. According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, discharges under Don't Ask, Don't Tell declined before Gulf War I and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. "It appears that commanders during times of war and conflict recognize that gay and lesbian service members do their jobs well," SLDN's Steve Ralls noted.

It is worth repeating once more the words of Martin Niemoeller in an era when immigrants, Muslims, and Arab Americans are accused of terrorism on the flimsiest of evidence: "In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.... Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." So who's next?

Tim Kingston works for Global Exchange, an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, political, and environmental justice.