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By: JOE CREA COMMENTS
 
Donna Red Wing says she is on her computer at 5 a.m. every day reading e-mail
and on the phone by 7 a.m. calling gay men and lesbians around the country
urging them to vote for Howard Dean. As director of GLBT outreach for the former
Vermont governor’s presidential campaign, she said she works closely with gay
leaders across the country, including activists with Out for Dean and Dykes
for Dean, two gay grassroots groups.
Red Wing, 53, was the policy director at the Gill Foundation until April 2003,
where she managed various gay-related projects and served as the gay rights
advocacy group’s training director.
Red Wing said she met Dean two and half years ago at a Democratic National
Committee event where the two connected over her work at the Gill Foundation.
Dean was so impressed with Red Wing’s background that he finished their conversation
by saying, “You will have to work for me,” she recalled.
Red Wing said she supports Howard Dean’s candidacy because he “changed the
lives of gay and lesbian couples in Vermont” when he signed the nation’s first
civil unions bill.
“When I talk to GLBT families in Vermont, it’s clear their lives have changed,” Red
Wing said. “From the way they can interact as a couple, legally speaking, to
their children and health care issues, they are living the Howard Dean dream.
They are treated in every way as a family. For me, that’s what made him stand
out.”
Red Wing added that she was also impressed by Dean’s support and work related
to health care and safety for the “most vulnerable among us,” including children
and the elderly.
In 2000, Red Wing served as co-chair of the Millennium March on Washington
for Equality. The march, which took place on April 30, was the fourth national
march for gay rights.
Red Wing, who was also the National Field Director for the Human Rights Campaign
from 1996-1999 and for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation from 1993-1996,
said many gay men and lesbians have responded enthusiastically to Dean’s candidacy.
“The reception has been really good,” Red Wing said. “Even folks who may be
considering another candidate, and we have an abundance of candidates this
year who are very good on the GLBT issues. For example, if I am talking to
a Kucinich person, many are willing to talk about Howard Dean as well.”
Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio congressman and former mayor of Cleveland, registered
single-digit support in last week’s Iowa caucuses and this week’s New Hampshire
primary.
Red Wing said it has been difficult to do outreach for Howard Dean in urban
areas where people tend to be very attached to one particular candidate.
“You would imagine that it would be more difficult in the South, but it hasn’t
been,” Red Wing said. “For example, in San Francisco, if you are a Kucinich
person, you are a Kucinich person. But in places where I talk to working class
people, communities that don’t come to mind when you think of political sophistication,
they are very interested in Dean’s message.
While Howard Dean has not embraced gay marriage, Red Wing said he looks at
the struggle for gay equality as “a journey” that must begin with pragmatic
steps.
“This is not a man who is against gay marriage but rather a pragmatic man
who recognizes that this is a journey we are taking together,” Red Wing said. “In
order to have all the rights, he recognizes that we might not get everything
we want immediately, but his goal is full rights and responsibilities for GLBT
people. There’s not a place other than Vermont where people are living that
dream.”
Red Wing also noted that Dean had to go on his own “journey” ...
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