Wisconsin’s LGBTQ community just took a hit on “Saturday Night Live.” On its satirical news segment, Weekend Update, host Michael Che offered a smart-alecky editorial while reporting on our recent rainbow flag incident in Oak Creek, declaring, “It is truly shocking to me that in 2019 there are still gay people in Wisconsin.” And, while the joke elicited appalled indignation from some local LGBTQs, the April 2 Supreme Court election results might buttress that observation. But the real shock shouldn’t be in the continued presence of gay Wisconsinites, but in their political abstinence.
While the 26% voter turnout was the second highest for an officially non-partisan election since 2000, LGBTQs seemed oblivious to it. One might think the DNC’s selection of Milwaukee as host of its 2020 National Convention, 2016’s election calamity and Tony Evers’ slim margin of victory in 2018 would inspire a surge of queer civic engagement. Especially in light of the critical importance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race on issues of LGBTQ equality, we should have been on the barricades to get out the vote. We weren’t. Instead, we were conspicuously absent, blithely ignoring the reality that taking over the judiciary on all levels is the GOP strategy to deprive us of our rights.
Scrolling through social media, one would be hard pressed to find any mention of the election on the pages of LGBTQ organizations. When I brought up their failure to get out the vote in 2016 with certain community leaders, they responded with the inevitable mealy mouthed pabulum: “We were too complacent,” or “You know we’re a 501(c)3 and can’t endorse a candidate.” While the former is certainly true, the latter is an avoidant excuse. Nothing prevents these organizations from alerting the community to its civic duty and the perils of ignoring it.
Yes, Madison elected its first lesbian mayor. That’s nice. And yes, TV attack ads against the Evangelical Christian Republican candidate Brian Hagedorn highlighted his rabid anti-LGBTQ record. Some say those ads actually mobilized evangelicals to vote. While certainly true, they should also have mobilized LGBTQ voters. However, for whatever reason (and granted, there are some gay Republicans in high places), neither the LGBT Community Center of SE Wisconsin, the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center nor any other local group posted even a passing mention of the election and its significance. Madison-based Fair Wisconsin did share an article about candidate Hagedorn’s homophobic agenda back in mid-February and, on Tuesday, April 2, put up an election day reminder as well as a link to the progressive group For Our Future WI’s article on the candidates. That’s it.
In a better-late-than-never moment, on Wednesday, April 3, Pride Milwaukee’s social media page linked its 45,000 followers to Fair Wisconsin’s, remarking, “If you are unhappy with the Wisconsin election results, we sure hope you VOTED.” To be fair, had the link been made before the election, a curious user wouldn’t have found much there anyway.
Whether increased LGBTQ participation would have changed the election result is impossible to say. However, in this 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall Riots, one might expect some semblance of its continued political legacy beyond vague nostalgia or its invocation as a marketing tool.
