Mar 14, 2008  |  By: PETER ROSENSTEIN  | COMMENTS     

ON TO PENNSYLVANIA! For the columnists and prognosticators who counted Hillary Clinton out — and gay blogger Andrew Sullivan who writes hate columns — maybe you should rethink your role in trying to bring a woman down.

I didn’t realize the extent to which sexism is still alive. As a gay man I have been more focused on homophobia in the last few years. But having worked for the late Rep. Bella Abzug (D-N.Y.) many years ago, I should have been aware that we have not come very far.

It is clear that racism is now politically incorrect. It is there in large measures and if Barack Obama is the nominee we will see just how widespread it still is, but we have come to the point that you cannot be racist in public and get away with it. Remember David Howard who was fired for using a word that sounded to someone whose vocabulary was limited, like the N-word? It was a national news story for two weeks. But we have seen in this campaign that we can still call women a word rhyming with witch, hold a sign up at a Clinton rally saying, “Hillary iron my shirts,” and everyone just laughs.

It is the same with discrimination against gays and lesbians. It is OK to discriminate and to call someone the “f-word” and most people still laugh.

Many gays and lesbians have found a way to excuse Obama for hiring Donnie McClurkin to speak for him and to accept bland statements of support with no proof that anything will ever be done. Women forget that they are still making only 77 cents to the dollar of what men make and that there is a glass ceiling for most jobs. They apparently continue to believe that by electing a man they will get what they deserve. I agree — they will get what they deserve.

I AM A little more understanding of black women who are torn between their race and their gender. That at least is understandable. But for other women to turn their back on another woman is crazy. For gays and lesbians not to support the person who has a history of supporting us is also not rational. It is Hillary who had a lesbian friend babysit for her daughter; the person holding her father’s hand when he died was a gay man. The relationships are long and deep. It is in Hillary’s office that the fight against the Federal Marriage Amendment was coordinated.

I am a proud feminist, a term I haven’t used in many years. It comes back when I speak to young women who tell me they have all the opportunities they need and fell for Obama. I laugh first and then cry inside. I feel for their mothers who were in the women’s movement, and are of my generation, who are ardent Clinton supporters because it is the culmination of what they have been fighting a lifetime for.

I AM A gay man who lives a great life. I live in a city where I have protections and where generally I can live life and be respected for who I am. But I understand that so many in the GLBT community live in places where that still isn’t the case — a world where you often can’t bring a gay partner into the United States and where gays can still be tortured and imprisoned.

So I understand what it means to fight for the rights of the GLBT community everywhere even if that fight isn’t impacting me right now. So why can’t the young women of today understand what it will mean not only to them but to women around the world if the United States were to elect a woman president? Why can’t they realize what breaking the highest glass ceiling in the world will do for them? Why can’t they understand that having Hillary in the White House will mean a personal commitment to having judges who will protect Roe v. Wade? After all, I understand what having Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin at the table with personal commitments to GLBT rights in Congress means to me.

And the interesting part is that Barney and Tammy both understand what it will mean to have a woman in the White House. They get it! They both lead great lives and new laws won’t make a difference to them personally. But they understand the difference Hillary will make for the GLBT community and for women for generations to come.