I finally got a new car. Well, actually it’s a used one. Like me, it’s vintage and silver-gray. And just in time for the Milwaukee County Transit System strike!
But the acquisition left me a little maudlin. No, I’m not pining away for those days of waiting for a bus in minus-something cold. Actually, a friend sold me his car because he’s moving to Portland, Ore. He even threw in a snow blower. But there’s the rub. He’s among more than half a dozen friends leaving Milwaukee for more conducive gay climes. They’re not snowbirds either. They range from 23 to 40-something. One is headed for San Diego, another is vacillating between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Los Angeles. Even drag queen Trixie Mattel is off to find her fame and fortune in West Hollywood.
All are part of Wisconsin’s LGBT brain and talent drain. It’s not just Milwaukee’s three degrees of separation dating pool or the winter. They have a common refugee status: They’re simply gay. Sadly, Milwaukee doesn’t offer the social or career amenities LGBT life demands. Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce director, Jason Rae, told me one reason for creating that organization was to stem the tide of gay professionals abandoning Wisconsin for friendlier business environments. It may not be working.
And it’s not only professional singles. There are concerns for LGBT families as well. Gov. Scott “Drop-out” Walker’s Boko Haram strategy cuts the state education budget by hundreds of millions while promising a similar amount to build the Bucks’ new basketball arena. It’s clear his priorities place a circus over education. With the dismantling of the public education from K-12 to the hallowed halls of the University of Wisconsin System, teachers and professors are fleeing for better opportunities elsewhere. The exodus portends the Wississippification of our schools. If LGBT parents have to send their kids out of state for a quality education, why not simply move with them? Then there’s infrastructure. The death of high-speed rail and the current opposition to the streetcar project reflects a mindset mired in myopic political agendas rather than creating a liveable modern city.
Then there’s the reality that dares not speak its name: racism. Black LGBTs of talent and means are leaving, too. Facing teetering public education, the worthless Walker promise of 250,000 jobs, homophobia from within the African American community and racism from without—even from gay Milwaukeeans—their prospects are limited.
The future doesn’t look rosy either. One prospective mayoral candidate spends his time fighting the streetcar with yet another petition, playing the juvenile “choo choo” card. Remember that was Walker’s schoolyard taunt that screwed Wisconsin out of the 21st century. Thus far, he has no job creation or education plans to buttress his incessant bashing of Police Chief Edward Flynn and Mayor Tom Barrett. Ironically, he even has some LGBT supporters.
On the bright side, I now have wheels, a friend in Portland and, best of all, a snow blower. Sigh.
