By Ben Joravsky
On one side are gay activists such as McKeon and Illinois Federation cofounders Garcia and Art Johnston. On the other are leaders of the right who liken homosexuality to a curable disease and predict various disasters–molested children, higher insurance rates, the annihilation of family values–should the bill pass. “It is beyond logical explanation why any sensible person would want to involve themselves with a group that is defined by the sex they perform,” reads one lobbying letter sent to legislators by Jack Roeser of the Family Taxpayers’ Network. “When that sex act involves inserting their genitals into excrement, the unsanitary aspects add to a normal person’s disgust.”
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In the middle are the mushy mainstream Republicans and Democrats. Bill supporters have been wheeling and dealing and vote swapping and backslapping. In this last go-around, for instance, McKeon and three other lakefront representatives–Sara Feigenholtz, Julie Hamos, and Carol Ronen–negotiated with Rosemont mayor Don Stephens, promising to swap votes for a suburban gambling casino if the mayor could get a few Republican legislators to vote for gay rights.
“In politics, it’s all about winning,” says Garcia. “You can’t take it personal.”
McKeon says he lost his cool. Soon after the vote was taken, he went to the press section and told reporters the bill would have passed had the three Republican legislators with gay siblings voted for it. He also named the legislators. His comments were reported in several newspapers, none of which identified the legislators. “It was essentially a human response to public circumstances,” says Snyder. “The very next day a Republican legislator called another Republican legislator a prick. These things happen. People get over them.”
Garcia concedes that without activists who play rough, gay-rights lobbyists can come across as beggars, pleading for legislators to do the right thing. “But it’s not my role–and it shouldn’t be Larry’s–to play tough cop,” he says. “If you want to take the high moral ground, then you shouldn’t be in the house. You should be a member of ACT-UP. I used to be a street activist. Now I have to keep doors open. I want to be able to say to a representative, ‘Do you want to have this bad person come in and piss on your rug, or do you want to deal with someone nice like me?’
