and continues:
Our community, however, has not come so far as to forget how easily the government has acted to track us, raid our bars, arrest our activists. As we mark World AIDS Day we remember the valid distrust we felt about our government in the early days of the pandemic. This distrust led us to fight to keep HIV/AIDS patients’ identity secret and to make anonymous testing available.
So it is from this perspective that Bay Windows endorses Congressman Mike Capuano for Senate. Capuano’s understanding on the dangers of the Patriot Act, the inherent unfairness of the death penalty and other issues essential to the health of civil liberties under all administrations make him the candidate with the ideals closest to those held by Ted Kennedy.
Bay Windows urges you to vote Mike Capuano on Dec. 8.
The editorial also praises Coakley for fighting for the LGBT community.
Capuano also picked up the endorsement of the Mayor of Gloucester, Carolyn Kirk and The Brookline Tab.
and failed to secure Bay Windows endorsement (but here’s the most important tpart)
<
p>… on the basis of their comparative strengths supporting civil rights:
<
p>
That is a slap in the face to Coakley (and not incorrect at all, IMO).
Just an endorsement.
and now the article on Jack E Robinson and Scott Brown is there.
I didn’t front-page it. Unless another editor did and then changed his mind, it’s more likely a server blip, which does occasionally happen.
but I thought it was the top story.
<
p>I’m nonetheless pleased to see Capuano get the bay wondows/lgbt endorsement.
Yes, the Bay Windows endorsement was a good get for Capuano, but it’s not the sole endorsement by the LGBT community.
<
p>As has been mentioned here on BMG, Martha Coakley had already been endorsed both by MassEquality and the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus.
<
p>We in Massachusetts are fortunate to have 4 candidates in the Democratic primary who are supportive of GLBT issues. We are also fortunate that two of those candidates actually have a track record of support in their current roles that we can look to (rather than rely on campaign promises). While Bay Windows looks to the candidate’s position of the Patriot Act to make their decision (a slightly odd justification as shown by the editor’s strained logic in their endorsement), I look to which candidate better understands the GLBT community.
<
p>I think it’s one thing to take certain stances because that’s what a good progressive does. It’s another to understand a group and then advocate for them from that place of understanding. On that metric, I believe Martha Coakley is the better choice. Not only has she sued the federal government in order to help end DOMA, she has also been active here in Massachusetts in trying to pass a Transgender Non-Discrimination Law (and was one of the first state-wide officeholders to support such a bill). Furthermore, she has taken a keen interest in GLBT domestic violence, including working with local police departments to train officers on how to handle such situations. That’s not a big, flashy, headline grabbing issue, but it’s one that affects the day-to-day life of countless individuals and Martha’s connection to and understanding of the GLBT community allows her to understand that and do something.
<
p>But who said otherwise?
You stated in the post I responded to:
<
p>
<
p>Clearly, a newspaper does not speak for the whole community. That would be like me saying “congrats to Khazei on getting the BMG/progressive blogging community endorsement” because the editors of this site endorsed Khazei.
<
p>Perhaps it was unintentional, but your post made it seem that the LGBT community had somehow ordained Capuano when clearly that isn’t the case given these other endorsements (and from my informal polling of friends).
<
p>
I should have said Bay Windows’ LGBT endorsement.
if any real polls will be released today or this weekend?
Sorry, meant to post this on the boston.com poll thread.
<
p>More coffee, please.