Dean’s Kiss and Make-Up

[kweerwolf]

Amidst several weeks of controversy in the LGBT press about a reorganization of the Democratic National Committee that eliminated the “gay desk” or liaison position there, Dr. Howard Dean, the party chairman and former Vermont governor and presidential candidate, was in New York Monday to meet with community leaders.

Roughly 25 New Yorkers, from LGBT Democratic clubs to service organizations such as Gay Men’s Health Crisis, attended the meeting, which was pulled together at Dean’s request primarily by Ethan Geto, the longtime gay activist who runs a public relations and lobbying firm and was the chairman of the Vermont Democrat’s 2004 presidential effort in this state.

The half-dozen of those in attendance who spoke to Gay City News, including Geto, said that Dean addressed questions about the reorganization—which took place last year and also included the elimination of other constituency “desks” in favor of a new, integrated effort, termed the American Majority Partnership, aimed at key Democratic voting blocs. But these participants also agreed that the bulk of the conversation focused more broadly on pushing the party to stake out a bolder, less defensive stance on its progressive agenda, including support for LGBT equality.

A DNC spokesman, Damien LaVera, specifically challenged the assumption that Dean initiated the meeting in New York in response to the reorganization flap, emphasizing that the chairman meets on a continuing basis with a wide variety of Democratic constituencies. The Friday before the New York meeting, Dean was in Boston visiting the Fenway Community Health Project, which has been providing gay men’s health services since the 1970s, well before the emergence of the AIDS crisis.

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_507/deanskiss.html

[joeybee12]

1. Is this your title, or the title of the article?

Just curious...oh, and too lazy to check!

[w13rd0]

2. Article Title...

...

[xchrom]

3. until the lgbtq community have the same rights as the

majority -- we aren't everyone else.

dean has a problem here.

[foreigncorrespondent]

4. Dean can go to hell!

This is just to try and sweet talk the community to come back and support them but still take the seat on the back of the bus.

I'm sorry but after reading that any org working for the LGBTIQQ community never received any of the DNC surplus money this just doesn't wash with me. The "American Majority Partnership" is just a way of burying us (the LGBTIQQ) even further.

[dsc]

5. I think that was Boston's doing

and not national Dems. I am not totally sure of that but it sounded like that from the article.