My letter to Ben Chandler

The Hon. Ben Chandler
1117 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1706

Dear Sir:

You may remember me from the Greater Lexington Women’s Club rally in August. I spoke to you about your vote in favor of H.R. 3313, and we held up the hot dog line together. I learned later that I had called you ‘dude’ several times; I apologize if you were offended. I didn’t mean it as lack of respect; you just seemed like a person I could actually talk to, unlike many of the politicos I have met in the past few months.

At that rally, you told me that 90% of your contacts received had been in favor of stripping gays and lesbians of legal recourse when it came to marriage. I said that those people weren’t going to vote for you anyway. Your reply: “If 90% of the voters don’t vote for me, I won’t have a job.”

Good reasoning, but the people who wrote you don’t represent 90% of actual voters. They are merely part of a certain religious subset, and they generally don’t vote for Democrats, even when they get their way.

Kentucky gays and lesbians are highly mobilized to vote against Bush in November, but many have refused to volunteer for or donate to the state Democratic party because of its en masse betrayal in April with the anti-gay amendment. A large number of gays and lesbians have already decided to sit out the U.S. Senate vote because of Mongiardo’s sponsorship of the amendment. If you have been watching the polls, you know that he isn’t doing very well against Bunning.

You have a better chance of beating Tom Buford, but your own contest is too close to sacrifice a similar number of votes. Fayette County may have one state rep like Stan Lee, but it has a longer track record of electing gay-supportive candidates like Kathy Stein, Ruth Ann Palumbo, and openly gay Ernesto Scorsone. There are plenty of open-minded voters out there desperately seeking someone who isn’t Republican-Lite.

Give voters a true alternative, Mr. Chandler. Vote against further attempts to strip the courts of their constitutionally-granted powers, and vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Many thanks,

Sarah Glenn