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Exit polls won't track gays; leaders react
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Gay leaders are deeply concerned
after learning this week that the Voter News Service (VNS) will not be
recording voters' sexual orientations in exit polling next Tuesday.
VNS, a joint project of the
Associated Press, the three main networks, CNN and Fox News, is the only
organization to take an official snapshot of the American electorate every
two years.
According to the Associated
Press, VNS is dropping the gay or straight question as part of a
streamlining move brought on by criticism of the pollsters' performance in
2000. VNS added to the confusion surrounding the last presidential election
by calling Florida for Al Gore, and subsequently retracting the prediction.
They have subsequently revamped their operations.
For the last four elections,
VNS has asked voters their sexual orientation, producing one of the most
solid pieces of data about the national GLBT community on record. In the
2000 election, the openly-GLB vote was 4 percent of the total -- one of the
largest minority blocs in the electorate. Combined with the closeted vote,
which can't be tallied, and the unknown transgender vote, the GLBT community
is a significant voice in American politics, demonstrably so thanks to VNS.
In some parts of the country,
such as New York and San Francisco, the gay electorate is even larger.
Identifying and measuring the
GLBT community is a Herculean task, and the national VNS exit poll is one of
the few random surveys of a large population that turns in an accurate
record of a particular GLBT statistic. That statistic -- the number of
openly gay voters -- happens to be one of the most valuable single items of
numerical information available to the gay rights movement.
Because of its legitimacy,
the VNS percentage of openly gay voters is also used as a benchmark in a
broad range of reports on the community that have nothing to do with
electoral politics.
The VNS decision is no small
point to the Human Rights Campaign, where Executive Director Elizabeth Birch
said it "will negatively impact millions of Americans and offer an
incomplete and inaccurate picture of the electorate."
In New York, Empire State
Pride Agenda chief Matt Foreman called the news "profoundly disturbing."
In a letter to the VNS
partners, the leaders of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists
Association said the absence of data on the community "renders this
constituency invisible in the reporting on the 2002 elections."
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West Hollywood Man Beats Back Attacker |
Christopher Lisotta, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
Friday, November 1, 2002 / 04:38 PM
A gay man turned the tables on two potential
attackers in West Hollywood last week, when he stood up to their anti-gay
epithets and fought back as they tried to assault him.
On the morning of Friday, Oct. 25, two men,
Fidel Serrano, 23, and Martin Hernandez, 21, were arrested for battery and the
commission of a hate crime, after they tried to attack a gay man outside a West
Hollywood bar on Santa Monica Boulevard. The man, who has not been identified,
fought back when Serrano and Hernandez jumped from their car and began hitting
him in the face and head with their hands. In a surprise move, the victim struck
Serrano, knocking him to the ground.
Serrano and Hernandez jumped back in their car
and tried to flee, but were stopped by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies
less than a block from the attack. Passersby who been harassed by the two men
earlier in the evening had called police, so the deputies were already on the
lookout for their car.
"Our community fought back and defended
itself," openly gay Sheriff's Deputy Don Mueller told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com
Network. "The Sheriff's Department, as part of this community, responded quick
enough to catch these violent suspects before they hurt somebody else."
For Mueller, the speed at which witnesses to
hate incidents called the police made all the difference in catching the
attackers. "This is exactly what we've been encouraging people to do," he added.
Serrano had to go to the hospital to be
treated for wounds from the fight. "He got three staples in his head," Mueller
noted.
The victim required no medical attention.
Serrano and Hernandez were booked in West Hollywood and are currently being held
on $101,000 bail each.
Last month LAPD officers
arrested two other men
wanted in connection to a series of hate-related assaults in nearby Hollywood.
On Oct. 13, Ever Wilfredo Rivera and Selvin Orlando Campos, both 19, were taken
into custody after a gay man and a transgender woman contacted police and told
them they had been attacked.
According to the Los Angeles Police
Department's LGBT community relations officer, Stacey Simmons, the Oct. 13
incidents also resulted in quick arrests because victims immediately called 911
to report what happened. As part of the LAPD investigation, a total of seven
victims may come forward to help build a stronger case against Rivera and
Campos.
"We don't care about immigration status,"
Simmons said, noting that many transgender women in Hollywood who are victims of
crime tend to be monolingual and undocumented, and fear going to the police. "We
say, 'Don't be the perfect victim.'"
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Sydney Opens Gay Games on Saturday |
Gay.com / PlanetOut.com
Network
Friday, November 1, 2002 / 04:41 PM
Almost 13,000 gay athletes from around the
world have arrived in Sydney for the sixth Gay Games sports and cultural
festival.
The event officially starts on Saturday with a
large opening ceremony featuring performances by k.d. lang and Jimmy Somerville.
The weeklong event is the largest Sydney has hosted since the 2000 Olympics.
Games co-chair Peter Bailey told the
Associated Press that men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, from 83
different countries, will participate in the event, which closes on Nov. 9.
Athletes will compete for gold, silver and
bronze medals in such standard Olympic sports as swimming, basketball, cycling
and figure skating. There are also competitions for bridge, golf and ballroom
dancing, among other activities.
Bailey estimates that two-thirds of the
athletes are men; one-third are women.
Financial problems
last month had raised some doubts about whether the games would go on.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the
event is estimated to bring $100 million to the local economy.
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