Gay activists are rejoicing at the
sudden retreat of Harold Ford Jr. from seeking a Senate seat in New
York.
The former Tennessee congressman
announced he would not run for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic
primary against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand – who has the
endorsement of leading gay rights group the Human Rights Campaign –
in an op-ed titled Why
I'm Not Running For The Senate
published in the New York Times Tuesday.
“I've examined this race in every
possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental
conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly
negative Democratic primary – a primary where the winner emerges
weakened and the Republican strengthened,” he said.
“I refuse to do anything that would
help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York, and give the Senate
majority to the Republicans,” he added.
Ford's about face comes on the heels of
a hostile meeting Thursday with gay activists in New York City.
At an event sponsored by the political
group Stonewall Democrats, furious crashers led by the New York-based
gay rights group The Power shouted “liar” over Ford's explanation
of how he evolved from backing civil unions for gay couples to
supporting marriage.
“I falsely and wrongly believed that
the two were equitable. I turned out to be wrong … I believe that
the position that I hold now is the right position,” he said.
The message, however, sounded hollow to
gay activists, who called Tuesday's announcement a victory.
“This is a great day for LGBT
people,” Jeffrey H. Campagna, founder of The
Power, said in an email to On Top Magazine. “They stood
up, embraced their own power, made themselves heard, and forced a
well-funded politician whose potential candidacy was offensive to the
community to abandon his attempt to represent us.”
Gay activists around the country, but
especially in New York and New Jersey where Democratic Senators
recently joined Republicans in killing legislation that would have
allowed gay couples to marry, are angry at politicians that stroke
the gay community for financial support but refuse to put up their
political capital for gay rights.
Campagna described Ford as such a
candidate. Ford twice voted in favor of the Federal Marriage
Amendment, a bill that sought to define marriage as a heterosexual
union in the U.S. Constitution, after aligning himself as an ally of
the gay community.
“We did not protest Ford's candidacy
because of his position on marriage,” Campagna said. “We
protested his candidacy because he lied to us and was unrepentant
about it. He lied when his office said that he wouldn't support a
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.”
“Any politician who takes our money
and our support during his or her campaign and then when in office
either fails to act or, as in Ford's case, joins with the forces of
hate by voting against us, must know that the LGBT community has the
power and the will to deliver consequences.”
New Jersey Democrats are already
feeling the consequences of failing to deliver on gay marriage in the
state. Garden State Equality, the state's largest gay rights group,
announced in January that it would end its blanket support of
political parties.
“No political party has a record good
enough on LGBT civil rights that it can rightfully claim to be
entitled to our money on a party-wide basis,” Steven Goldstein,
chair of Garden
State Equality, said in a statement. “No longer will we let
any political party take our money and volunteers with one hand, and
slap us in the face with the other when we seek full equality.”
Campagna echoed a similar sentiment:
“Whether you are a Democrat in the New York State Senate who took
our money and support in the last election and then voted against
same-sex marriage last December, or the President of the United
States, who ran on a promise to support full-equality for same-sex
couples but has yet to deliver, this action should put you on notice:
don't take us for granted.”