All Of My Days Have Been Misspent
Column by Dr. Betty Berzon
"Ralph Nader has announced that he will be a candidate for president of the United States in the 2004 election. With utter contempt for the real-world effect his "spoiler candidacy" will have on the outcome of the election, Nader witlessly drones on in his d�j� vu rant against the status quo as if he slept through 2000 and hasn't a clue that he insured George Bush of becoming president.
Any gay person who votes for Ralph Nader in the 2004 election will be voting for George Bush's second term, during which time an amendment to the U.S. Constitution will be set in motion to codify that the GLBT people of this country will be second-class citizens for decades to come.
The Federal Marriage Amendment will permanently ban same-sex marriage and invalidate all state and local domestic partnership and civil union laws in the United States. The campaign to pass this anti-gay amendment will be a campaign to legalize discrimination against the gay and lesbian citizens of this country.
Ralph Nader does not care about any of this. He is a dangerously deluded person who is out of touch with any reality but his own exhibitionistic obsession with public attention. A vote for Ralph Nader is a vote for George Bush to continue to alienate the rest of the free world. A British journalist recently said that mentioning George Bush's name anywhere in the world today is like opening a blast furnace, the anger and disdain for him are so forceful.
A vote for Ralph Nader is a vote to further empower the radical right members of George Bush's administration to push their own agenda domestically, internationally and culturally. The rights of gay and lesbian people are nowhere on that agenda.
A vote for Ralph Nader is a vote for a George Bush backlash against everything gay and lesbian people are working for now and have worked for decades to accomplish.
Please do not let that happen to our gay and lesbian relationships and families. This election, as no other in American history, is about us.
Do vote. Please do not vote for Ralph Nader."
