Original title: ACTION: With friends like Lee Cohen, who needs enemies? Tell Melissa Hart and Bill Frist that Lee Cohen does NOT represent you at the table!
One of the most common arguments against exposing these modern day Roy Cohns is that it’s important to have people working from within the system (in both parties) to represent gay and lesbian voices. I couldn’t agree more — there are many gays and lesbians doing good work in political offices, Democrat and Republican, all over the country — and you won’t see them listed here!
The other day, however, while I was rereading the New York Times article, it dawned on me that the people we list here sound a lot more like their bosses than they do typical representatives of gay and lesbian America. Here’s an example of this from the Times piece:
A gay press secretary for a House Republican who refused to be named because his boss asked him not to speak publicly on the marriage debate said … ”It put it into focus,” said the aide, whose name and telephone number have been posted on Mr. Rogers’s Web site. ‘‘If there is a spectrum of things that make up who I am, the things that draw me to work for Republicans are more important that anything related to my sexual orientation.” (emphasis added)
So, just who is this unidentified source? Lee Cohen of Rep. Melissa Hart’s office, that’s who! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Lee Cohen is the ONLY press secretary on the site with an office number listed! Not very anonymous after all.
Now, if you’re like me, the quote above (especially the last part) is pretty unreal. Is Mr. Cohen one of the “insiders” gay and lesbian Americans are counting on to represent us at the table? I hope not! My concerns are heightened by the fact that the Melissa Hart is Co-chair of the RNC Platform Committee.
If you’re like me, you’ll want to hop over to the RNC Platform Portal to enter what YOU think should be in (and OUT) of the RNC 2004 Platform. After you send your note to the committee, make sure you also drop a line to lettercopy@blogACTIVE.com…I’ll make sure I post excerpts of the best ones here. Of course, if you’re like Lee Cohen and you believe that lesbian and gay equality is LESS important than ANYTHING the Republicans stand for as a party, click here.
While you’re at the RNC Platform site…be sure to mention the Employment Non Discrimination Act…after all, the GOP is the party stopping this important legislation from being voted upon.
