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If lesbians and gay men can be denied the rights that every American citizen is supposed to have–jobs, physical security, the right to privacy, even freedom of speech–what other group will be next?

Will it be “secular humanists,” whom the Radical Right is so fond of attacking? Those faculty that Dick Armey says are “irresponsible” and whom he is ashamed of having been a part? How about ACLU members, who are guilty of supporting the rights of all sorts of unpopular groups? Or very old people? Phil Gramm says living to be eighty is a luxury.

When HItler attacked the homosexuals in Germany, even before the Communists that Niemoller mentions, nobody paid any attention. They didn’t matter. But each time a group is attacked, it is easier to attack the next one. Sure, we’re afraid for our own jobs and our own security. We’re even more afraid for our gay and lesbian friends who are not open, not part of the gay movement, and therefore much easier for the hate-mongers to discriminate against quietly.

But we are also afraid for everybody’s freedom to be an individual. If Phil Gramm is elected to the Senate, having attacked us openly and lied about gay issues as a basic part of his campaign, it will tell other candidates in the future that this is the way to campaign in Texas. If other Republican candidates–Dick Armey and Jim Horn and Ben Campbell–are elected on the State Republican Platform, it will be considered a mandate to pass the bill introduced (but kept in committee) in the Texas legislature last session to make homosexual behavior a felony and to require gay people to be fired from certain jobs. And if Ronald Reagan is re-elected and appoints Radical Right judges to the Supreme Court, when Don Baker’s case comes up (it struck down the Texas laws prohibiting sexual behavior between consenting same-sex adults in private) we will lose.

And our loss will be everybody’s loss. Not just because gay people will be unable to make contributions to society that we otherwise could, but because nobody will be safe. No one will know when they will come for you.

Please vote on November 6 for candidates who support all Americans’ rights. And please–call your friends and relatives that you know feel the same way you do and see if they have voted. The Democratic Party will be calling, but that’s not nearly as effective as a call from someone you know. Offer them rides, Watch their children. Stay with their sick. We saw in the primaries the importance of even a few votes. Help preserve everyone’s individual rights.

Sincerely,

Edra Bogle [signature]

Tom Cain [signature]