Lesbians, Gays, Economic Development & Social Acceptance

Milk got me thinking about GLBT things again, something I was maybe more into when I was younger. I read quite a bit into LesBiGay history back then, pretty much devouring every book on the topic that the library had.

However, I was never the activist the way Harvey Milk and his friends where, more on the fringes of that scene, more the "checkbook activist", though I did my small turn marching in gay pride parades.

There were, and are, some good solid activists and organizers in Dayton (one was Leon Bey, who in modern times helped organize the Save the Arcade campaign). Yet, back in the day, the one that sort of brought me into this activist thing and out of the bars was one Steve Bickford.

Steve was a good organizer, politically aware, and also pretty good about networking and making connections. He even got me to attend the big NGLTF Creating Change conference one year.

So what happened to Steve? He was fired and left town.

Where was he fired from? Wright-Patterson AFB. And he was out of the closet at work. It didn't take to long after he came out before he was told to clean out his desk, metaphorically speaking. Who knows if his homosexuality had something to do with it? He did tell me that he had co-workers who refused to work with him, and management accomodated their refusal.

Which is why I just have to laugh at the worship of Wright-Patterson among the economic development & creative class poobahs here. They see the local defense presence as a big plus and source for economic growth and the network of contractors, civilians, military, and retired military as big human resource and talent pool.

But is this such a big plus for gays and lesbians? I suspect it is quite the contrary.

After organized religion the military is the most homophobic institution in US society. The miltiary excludes lesbians and gays as a matter of policy. And the security clearance process (administered by the military) can be used to exclude gays and lesbians from civilian contractor employment. Beyond that retired military bring their prejudices with them when they are hired into the private sector.

So one can see how a hostile or at best grudginly tolerant "don't ask/don't tell" social and work climate would begin to permeate the region if the defense sector becomes more and more prominent and influential.

This may already be happening. An indicator is the recent referendums on gay marriage in Ohio (2004) and California (2008). As one can see of the top Ohio metro counties, Montgomery County did the worst in point spread, where the no vote was over 16% more than the yes vote. This was the even worse than Akron and Toledo, both old industrial citys. Dayton is , paradoxically, more high-tech (higher % in engineering, scientific, and professional work), yet had a higher % no vote. Perhaps the presence of the defense sector here accounts for the slighly higher % in Dayton.

And then there was last years California vote. Statewide the spread was 5% between the yes and no vote, indicating how close this was, and also indicating a modicum of social acceptance of lesbians, gays, and their relationships vis a vis Ohio. Only Franklin County (Columbus) equaled the California spread. Sacramento, the fourth largest metro area in the state, in the conservative Central Valley, voted no with a higher spread, but it was more equivilant to Cleveland and well below Dayton/Montgomery County's 16%.

Of course one can ask is it really good anywhere in the US for gays and lesbians. After all Calfiornia did render same-sex marriage unconstitutional via referendum. There is social progress over time, but some places are better or worse than others, and progress is always tenuous and contingent. It was only a generation ago that gays and lesbians were in a gray area overlapping between criminality, immorality, and mental illness.

In any case it's questionable what place gays and lesbians have in the economic and social life of this community if it becomes more and more oriented toward the defense sector.