I just want to thank you for your extraordinary service. And in this country, we believe in standing by our friends and allies.
I would say we had a relatively good year. We had a very good year as Democrats. I think gay and lesbian Americans had a better year than we might have expected. The first openly lesbian legislator in the state of Alabama. And Oklahoma.
We’re very proud of [Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council Executive Director] Brian Bond and his leadership, who told us where to put money. And one of those places we put some money was Illinois, getting a very discriminatory and nasty ballot item off — helping to get it off — the ballot. And for having put a little money into Wisconsin, where we didn’t win, but where my former campaign manager in Wisconsin ran an initiative. And most satisfying of all, of course: Putting a little dough into the effort to beat back those kinds of amendments in Arizona.
We have a lot of work to do, but we have made some progress. And we have more to make. I just want to say how much I appreciate everybody in this caucus, and all of you, and how hard you work, and how much of an effort you made to try to move the whole agenda forward without getting caught up in the battles that go on in every single community about how much is enough, and how much is not appropriate for this particular election. It’s incredibly difficult. I try never to make the argument that you can’t do this, because how do you deny somebody’s civil rights because it’s electorally inconvenient?
On the other hand, we were able to make some real gains, and I think it’s going to show up in this Congress. Because I believe that after we do the 100 hours, and after we disapprove of the president’s behavior in Iraq, that we will, finally, and I absolutely am going to do everything in my power to ask Congress to take up, finally, and pass ENDA.
If the president wants to veto a bill that bans discrimination, let him explain that to the people in 2008. [Inaudible.] I’m very comfortable going to Utah and explaining why you shouldn’t be fired if you happen to be a gay person, or a lesbian, or transgender or bisexual. And transgender is part of this, too. You don’t stop, of course, without that.
I don’t want to scare the hell out of all the folks in Washington. It’s probably time to shut up. But thank you for your help. Thank you for your support. And once again, this community was extraordinary.
I have a lot of exit poll figures for who voted Democratic, based on ethnic basis. I have none for the LGBT community because it’s incredibly hard for a stranger to go up and say, “Excuse me, would you mind telling me if you’re gay or lesbian, so I can ask you your political views over the telephone?” I think we have not — except for the LGBT community itself, I think we have not yet figured out how to poll this community the way we need to. But I think we can be fairly certain by some of the polls that have been put out in LGBT publications that this community still vigorously supports Democrats — that Log Cabins are an endangered minority.
We would welcome any member of the Log Cabins to come over to us, because they’ll feel a hell of a lot more comfortable in our party.
