Gavin Newsom, the California governor loved in some Democratic circles for his willingness to emulate President Trump’s distinctive communication style, told CNN last week that his party needs to be more “culturally normal.”
Newsom made the comment during a conversation about trans kids playing sports but he had moved on to urging Democrats to avoid queer issues in general.
“Less prone to spending disproportionate amount of time on pronouns, identity politics, more focused on tabletop issues, things that really matter, the stacking of stress in terms of the electricity bills and child care costs and health care and obviously housing costs, and how easily we get trapped in that, how I’ve fallen prey to that. I mean here I was way out front on marriage equality,” he said.
Ending smoking in casinos would prioritize New Jerseyans’ health
We’ve come a long way from Barack Obama, who changed his mind on opposing same-sex marriage in advance of a tough reelection fight in 2012 and brought a lot of his party along with him. Newsom’s strategy is to wave the white flag.
Luckily for New Jersey’s LGBTQ population, the state has some actual leaders in this space. I’m talking about Elizabeth Schedl, Laura Bustamante, and Neil Abadie, who have teamed up to launch Pride Action Fund, a new nonprofit advocacy group aimed at building a powerful voice on queer issues in response to the Trump administration’s aggression toward the community and Democrats who want to blame trans people for the party’s electoral losses.
It’s an offshoot of the Hudson Pride Center in Jersey City, which for years has provided vital services to the LGBTQ community in Hudson County. Schedl is executive director of both groups.
“Pride Action is about turning community power into policy power,” Schedl told me.
The three said they’ve been working on launching the group for more than a year, but it lands in New Jersey at precisely the right time. Garden State Equality, which for years was the only game in town when it comes to advocacy on LGBTQ issues, was hobbled in recent months when its now-ex executive director was arrested on child abuse charges.
“We had no idea what was going to transpire with Garden State Equality,” Schedl said. “There can be multiple organizations working for political advocacy and support for LGBTQ folks.”
New Jersey is no doubt one of the better states to live in if you’re out and proud. But Trump’s success at the ballot box has driven some of our Democratic leaders to cower about certain issues the way Newsom has, in particular those that help the transgender community. A New Jersey bill to protect doctors and patients from federal threats to transgender health care was prevented from even getting a committee hearing during the last legislative session. That bill is a chief priority of Pride Action Fund, said Bustamante, the new group’s chair.
“I think there’s a real need here to shape policy that is protective, it’s inclusive, it’s affirmative, and it’s something that folks feel really good about,” she said.
The three will spend the next six month setting up their agenda, and they don’t plan to endorse any political candidates right away.
For Abadie, Pride Action Fund’s vice chair, the group exists to make sure state officials reinforce existing protections for the LGBTQ community and hold our elected officials accountable for the promises they make to us on the campaign trail.
“New Jersey is a leader in the country for LGBTQ rights. However, they can be strengthened and they can be codified and put into a stronger, unremovable state with the right legislative work,” Abadie said.
I talked to David Guirgis, a gay Jersey City man who knows Elizabeth, Laura, and Neil, and called them all “badasses.” Guirgis said New Jersey’s queer community has been itching for “real, active, proactive representation.”
“I’m really excited that the potential for this group to form is happening at this moment, especially considering the fact that the federal government has really turned up the heat on trans people in particular, but the queer community at large. An attack on one is an attack on all. And I really want to see people in Trenton get activated around that,” he said.
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