Politics
Column: She helped win an early fight for gay rights. Now it feels like history is repeating
Gwenn Craig made her manner slowly via the foyer of a beachfront landmark, previous the colourful Melancholy-era murals to the elevator and a desk upstairs for 2.
She got here to debate historical past of a newer and private nature, and how one can prevail in sure battles however by no means cease having to battle.
“That’s what leaves me typically so exhausted,” the 70-year-old Craig stated, as waves unfurled within the ocean beneath. “It doesn’t matter what, it’s fixed. You possibly can’t simply say, ‘We gained the battle, and now we will relaxation.’”
In 1978, Craig helped lead the battle in opposition to Proposition 6, a California poll measure that may have banned gays and lesbians from working in public faculties. Although it began out main in polls, the measure misplaced overwhelmingly in one of many first main electoral victories for the homosexual rights motion.
Now, with lawmakers throughout the nation passing legal guidelines to limit what academics can say about sexual orientation and the way mother and father can have interaction with their transgender kids, it appears as if occasions, if not precisely repeating, are touring full circle and touchdown with blunt pressure.
“There’s a good portion of the nation that simply desires to show again the clock,” Craig stated, “to make issues like they was, and that features how they used to have the ability to deal with homosexual folks and the way homosexual folks was considered, the place homosexual folks was in, which suggests subordinate, hidden, repressed.”
Like many, Craig got here to San Francisco within the mid-Nineteen Seventies to search out herself.
She was born in Atlanta, went to school in Chicago and was drawn to San Francisco by, along with the not-snowy climate, its popularity for tolerance and openness. It was, Craig stated, “a spot the place you might be whoever you wished to be,” together with, in her case, a 24-year-old simply starting to discover her sexual orientation.
At the moment, same-sex marriage is enshrined in legislation. An brazenly homosexual man, Pete Buttigieg, serves as Transportation secretary within the Biden administration. There are brazenly homosexual members of Congress, homosexual chief executives, homosexual sports activities stars, and on. So it might be laborious, Craig stated, for many who weren’t round to understand the way it was for somebody like herself.
“The overwhelming majority of homosexual folks weren’t out of the closet,” she stated. “They weren’t out to their employer, they weren’t out to their co-workers, they weren’t out to their household. They usually had been very petrified about folks discovering out.”
In 1977, in Dade County, Fla., singer and citrus-industry pitchwoman Anita Bryant led a profitable effort to repeal an ordinance barring discrimination primarily based on sexual orientation. She drew nationwide consideration and stoked the fears of Craig and others who informally gathered to debate copycat efforts and methods to battle again.
Craig was loud and passionate, she stated, so she was chosen to function one of many spokeswomen for San Francisco’s homosexual group. Not realizing what that meant, Craig turned to an up-and-coming political activist with a penchant for grabbing publicity.
She recalled visiting Harvey Milk at his digital camera store within the Castro District, town’s homosexual haven, and the way “he swept me into the again room and, boy, began giving me tons of knowledge. He started mentoring me.”
By the point Proposition 6 certified for the November 1978 poll, Milk was a member of the Board of Supervisors, the primary brazenly homosexual elected official in California historical past. He turned a statewide chief of the “No on 6” effort and made Craig co-chair of the San Francisco marketing campaign.
The initiative was the work of John Briggs, a far-right state senator from Orange County who — armed with Bryant’s contributor record — hoped to launch himself into the governor’s workplace.
The marketing campaign he waged was scathing and uncooked. Briggs claimed that being homosexual was a way of life selection, and an odious one at that. He stated homosexuality, because it was then recognized, was worse than communism as a result of it unfold “like a most cancers” via society and destroyed civilizations. He claimed that massive numbers of academics had been secretly homosexual and baby predators.
The measure was defeated, 58% to 42%, thanks in no small half to the opposition of former Gov. Ronald Reagan, who joined President Carter, former President Ford and Gov. Jerry Brown in urging Californians to vote “no.”
“Homosexuality shouldn’t be a contagious illness just like the measles,” Reagan wrote within the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner days earlier than the election. “Prevailing scientific opinion is that a person’s sexuality is set at a really early age and {that a} baby’s academics do probably not affect this.”
(An embittered Briggs blamed the measure’s defeat on “cocktail Republicans” with homosexual mates in Hollywood and predicted that Reagan was “completed as a nationwide politician.”)
However the celebration for Craig and different Proposition 6 opponents was short-lived. Lower than a month after its defeat, Milk was assassinated by former Supervisor Dan White, who embodied the forces resisting the rising clout of gays, lesbians and others lengthy denied energy and illustration at Metropolis Corridor.
It took a very long time, Craig stated, earlier than she may watch information footage of that day with out crying.
Outdoors, the solar broke via the late-morning fog shrouding the Seashore Chalet on the sting of Golden Gate Park.
Milk would have been amazed on the progress the homosexual rights motion achieved over the previous 40 years, Craig stated, as she stirred cream in her espresso. He additionally would have been disheartened, she stated — if not altogether stunned — at how the LGBTQ+ group is once more being focused and stigmatized by politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Texas counterpart, Greg Abbott, who’ve eyes on greater workplace.
Milk would have believed, she stated, that the battle for recognition and respect was gained, however not over. He thought that by popping out folks would notice that gays and lesbians “are your little kids, your pals and neighbors … the folks sitting subsequent to you in church pews and on the bus, not the devils we had been made out to be.”
“Individuals have seen ‘Will & Grace,’ and that was a very long time in the past,” Craig stated with a deep giggle, referring to the TV sitcom with two beloved homosexual characters. “They’ve seen the films and the TV exhibits. They’ve learn the books. It’s too late. I don’t assume persons are going to return.”
Even when some politicians consider that’s the best way to maneuver themselves ahead.
Politics
Dem leader condemns Thanksgiving bomb threats against liberal lawmakers after Team Trump targeted
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned several threats, mostly focused on lawmakers from Connecticut, targeting members of his caucus, just days after numerous threats were made against President-elect Trump’s cabinet selections.
Jeffries, D-N.Y., confirmed in a statement Friday that several Democrats were targeted with threats ranging from pipe bombs in their mailboxes to “swatting” — or filing a false police report on another person’s behalf that often results in a SWAT team being dispatched.
All of the threatening messages were signed “MAGA,” Jeffries said, adding law enforcement found no ordnance at any of the targeted lawmakers’ homes.
“America is a democracy. Threats of violence against elected officials are unacceptable, unconscionable and have no place in a civilized society. All perpetrators of political violence directed at any party must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” he said.
TOP DEM: ‘UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRATION’ IS A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY
“House Democrats will not be deterred or intimidated from serving the people by violent threats. We have been in close communication with the Sergeant at Arms office and it is imperative that Congress provide maximum protection for all Members and their families moving forward.”
After Jeffries spoke out, Rep. Seth Magaziner, a Democrat from neighboring Rhode Island, announced on Friday afternoon that his home had been targeted, as well. Magaziner said Providence police responded quickly and no one was harmed.
Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., had his home targeted by a bomb threat. A spokesperson said it appeared to be part of a “coordinated effort.”
Five other Democrats from the Constitution State received similar threats, including Reps. Joe Courtney, John Larson, Rosa DeLauro, Jahana Hayes and James Himes.
CT DEM SAYS IT’S CLEAR HUNTER BIDEN BROKE THE LAW
“There is no place for political violence in this country, and I hope that we may all continue through the holiday season with peace and civility,” said Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee who replaced Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Prior to that spate of threats, Trump’s U.N. ambassador-designate Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said she was traveling home to her North Country district for Thanksgiving when she was informed of a threat against her home.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. — Trump’s initial choice for attorney general — also received a threat.
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. — Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency — said his home was subjected to a “pro-Palestinian-themed” pipe bomb threat. Zeldin is Jewish.
Former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., whom the president-elect tapped for Labor secretary, said her Oregon home was targeted, as was that of former San Diego Chargers cornerback Scott Turner, whom Trump named to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Trump nominees including Cantor-Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, America First Policy Institute President Brooke Rollins and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth also received threats.
In a statement, the FBI said it is aware of “numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees, and we are working with our law enforcement partners.”
“We take all potential threats seriously and, as always, encourage members of the public to immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement,” it said.
Fox News’ Kevin Ward contributed to this report.
Politics
Capitol rioter's defamation suit against Fox News is dismissed
A Delaware court judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News filed by a Jan. 6 rioter who said the network falsely identified him as an FBI informant.
U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer L. Hall granted Fox News’ motion to dismiss the suit filed last year by Ray Epps.
Now based in Utah, Epps alleged his life was upended after former Fox host Tucker Carlson repeatedly described him as a federal agent who helped instigate the attack on the Capitol, which was an attempt to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden.
Carlson described Epps as a principal in a false flag operation in which the government incited the Jan. 6 riot, an unfounded conspiracy theory. He made the false comments about Epps on his program over a period of nearly two years and in a series called “Patriot Purge” that streamed on Fox Nation in 2022.
In her remarks from the bench, Hall said Carlson did not act with malicious intent.
Fox News welcomed the judge’s decision, which is the third consecutive defamation case to be decided in favor of the network after the record $787-million settlement it paid to Dominion Voting Systems in April 2024.
Dominion said its business was damaged by false claims Fox News presented regarding voting fraud in the 2020 election. Fox News chose to settle the case rather than have its executives and on-air talent take the witness stand in a trial.
A separate defamation suit filed by Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the federal Disinformation Governance Board, was dismissed in July. Another case brought by Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, was thrown out on Tuesday.
“Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” the network said in a statement.
Epps was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge for his role in the riot.
Epps testified under oath to the House committee investigating the attack that he had no involvement with the FBI, which has also stated publicly that he had no association with the bureau.
The lawsuit claimed Epps and his wife received threatening voice mails, emails and text messages because of Carlson‘s comments. Epps told the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” that the lies ruined his Arizona-based business and led to death threats.
Carlson’s prime-time program was pulled from the Fox News lineup on April 24, 2023, the day after Epps appeared on “60 Minutes.”
Politics
Political betting markets still have plenty of action despite end of election season
The end of the election season does not mean the end of political betting, with many platforms allowing users to place wagers on everything from the 2028 election to who will be confirmed to President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
“Some people will be amazed by this, but people are already betting on 2026 and 2028,” Maxim Lott, the founder of ElectionBettingOdds.com, told Fox News Digital. “There’s been about a quarter million dollars bet already.”
The comments come after the 2024 election produced plenty of betting action, with users across multiple platforms wagering over $2 billion on the outcome of the latest race.
WHAT ARE ELECTION BETTING ODDS? EXPERT EXPLAINS WHY TRUMP IS CURRENT FAVORITE
While mega sporting events, such as the Super Bowl and the recent Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight, gives gamblers plenty to wager on after the election, those looking for something political to bet on will still have plenty of options.
One of the most popular topics is who will be the nominees for both major parties in 2028, with ElectionBettingOdds.com showing California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President-elect JD Vance being the current leaders for Democrats and Republicans, respectively.
Other names with a significant amount of attention for betters include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for the Democratic nomination, while Vance is trailed by names like entrepreneur and future head of the new Department of Government Efficiency Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump Jr. on the Republican side.
“The big Democratic governors are favored to be the next nominee,” Lott said, noting that Vance currently holds a sizable lead over other options on the GOP side.
TRUMP OPENS UP LARGEST BETTING LEAD SINCE DAYS AFTER BIDEN’S DROPOUT
Vance is also the current betting leader on who will win the 2028 presidential election, ElectionBettingOdds.com shows, followed by Newson and Shapiro as the next two likely options.
However, Lott warned it is still too early to tell what the future holds, noting that the markets will start to provide more clarity as more information becomes known over the next few years.
“As the future becomes clearer… as we get closer to 2026, 2028, these odds will change,” Lott said. “So if the Trump administration is doing really well, the economy is booming, inflation is not out of control, wars are ending, Vance’s odds will certainly go up.”
Bettors also are not limited to wagering on elections, with platforms such as Polymarket allowing users to place bets on Trump’s picks to serve in his Cabinet and whether they will be confirmed. Bettors can also place wagers on questions such as if they believe the war in Ukraine will end in Trump’s first 90 days or if there will be a cease-fire in Gaza in 2024.
According to Lott, taking a look at the current betting odds for many scenarios can help inform you about what is going on in the world, even if you do not place bets yourself.
“People often ask… is there any value to this… it’s just gambling. It’s silly,” Lott said. “But actually it’s very useful… if you want to know what’s going to happen in 2028 or if the Trump administration is going to be a success, you could read 100 news articles on it. Some will misinform you. Or, you can just go to the prediction markets and see… is Vance a 20% chance of becoming the next Republican nominee or is he a 90% chance? That tells you a lot.”
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