Opinion :: Editorial
Capuano for SenateThursday Dec 3, 2009 We should never become complacent.
All of the candidates in the democratic primary to fill Ted Kennedy’s senate seat are not merely friends, but advocates for the LGBT community. It would have been unimaginable five years ago that a senate candidate, even a Massachusetts candidate, would tout his or her support of same-sex marriage as proof of his or her democratic street cred, yet each candidate was out and proud for us.
The choice for many in our community is between state Attorney General Martha Coakley and Congressman Mike Capuano.
Coakley has garnered a host of LGBT support and endorsements. As AG she set the state’s agenda and dismantled as many barriers as possible toward our equal rights. She not only fought battles brought to her but also sought ways to bring our state’s success to the rest of the nation.
Capuano deserves the support he’s had from the LGBT community. His efforts to end "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," and for his support of marriage equality and for his sane HIV/AIDS policies are proof of his commitment to our causes.
From the narrow lens of LGBT issues, both candidates are worthy of our consideration.
Our community, however, has not come so far as to forget how easily the government has acted to track us, raid our bars, arrest our activists. As we mark World AIDS Day we remember the valid distrust we felt about our government in the early days of the pandemic. This distrust led us to fight to keep HIV/AIDS patients’ identity secret and to make anonymous testing available.
So it is from this perspective that Bay Windows endorses Congressman Mike Capuano for Senate. Capuano’s understanding on the dangers of the Patriot Act, the inherent unfairness of the death penalty and other issues essential to the health of civil liberties under all administrations make him the candidate with the ideals closest to those held by Ted Kennedy.
Bay Windows urges you to vote Mike Capuano on Dec. 8.
Jeff Coakley and Sue O’Connell are co-publishers of Bay Windows. They can be reached at publishers@baywindows.com
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