Wisconsin’s First Black U.S. Rep. Knocks for Equality

Gwen Moore doesn’t need talking points. Not when the Wisconsin constitution is threatened by an amendment that would deny all Wisconsin couples the right form legal non-marriage partnerships in their romantic relationships, and ban gay couples from any legal recognition similar to marriage. Moore simply carries with her a pocket reader of the U.S. Constitution. She reads from the civil rights sections of the Bill of Rights. She references the section of the Declaration of Independence that outlines the rights of “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” that are inalienable for all Americans. She then takes her message to the streets to talk to voters – her voters, black voters on Milwaukee’s near north side. “This isn’t about gay people – this is going to hurt all of us,” she tells them. Describing herself as a “Gally” – a friend of the gay and lesbian community – Moore joined about 100 volunteers and organizers of Center Advocates for a Sunday afternoon of knocking for equality in Milwaukee and north Suburban neighborhoods. The July 10 canvas targeted the Senate districts of North Shore Republican Alberta Darling and Milwaukee Assembly Rep. Polly Williams, two politicians who voted in favor of the amendment. Amendments that allow only marriages between men and women and ban “substantially similar” arrangements such as civil unions and domestic partnerships have been passed by 16 states, 11 of them by voters in the 2004 elections. In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed the anti-gay marriage legislation, but the GOP is taking the amendment to the voters as a referendum. For it to make it that far, the legislation has to pass in two consecutive legislative sessions. In the Round One vote, held last year, the amendment was passed 20-13 in the state Senate and 68-27 in the Assembly. Moore, a former state Senator elected to Congress last fall, voted “No.” “The people who would push this [amendment] through, all the way through, who are out to defeat those of us concerned about quality of life for all in Wisconsin, are sinister people,” Moore told volunteers in a speech at Plymouth Church on the Upper East Side. “Insidious,” “pernicious” and “poisonous” were other words she used to describe the amendment. “The constitution says that ‘no state shall make or enforce any law that will abridge the rights of the citizenry’ … and Congress shall ‘make no law infringing upon the life, liberty or pursuit of happiness without due process under the law,’” she said, reading from the text. “This is about the rights of American citizens to live out their lives without interference from the government.” For Moore, the canvass was an opportunity to teach within the glow of her newfound celebrity as the state’s first black representative in the U.S. Congress. She is greatly admired, adored even, in the north Brewer’s Hill neighborhood where she walked with Patrick Flaherty, executive director of Center Advocates, an aide and two reporters in tow. At one point, a young mother approached with a camera, asking if Moore would pose with her young daughter. At the doors, the message is direct. “I need to talk to you about the constitution,” she announced to one woman. “We like it just the way it is,” the woman respon “It’s important for us to recruit non-gay people,” she told another woman who spoke with Moore on her porch. “For us to look at this issue as a gay issue, or [other civil rights issues] as black issues is wrong. This affects all of us.” The woman said she hadn’t thought about the amendment until Moore told her about it. “Yoo hoo … Hello … It’s Congresswoman Gwen Moore,” she called through a porch screen door as a man in his 40s approached from his kitchen, recognizing her. “I’m out here trying to get people to disagree with the discrimination amendment,” she began. “I voted against the amendment to discriminate against gay people, but it really hurts everybody.” Moore read the amendment to him, explaining that it is “divisive and discriminatory” and would prevent gay couples from caring for their families and receiving health benefits. “We can’t let this gay bashing occur,” she urged, handing the man an Equality Knocks petition to sign. “As black people we cannot allow this to occur.” No we can’t, he said, taking the pen and clipboard. “The Constitution!” Moore called out, raising her fist to the air as he wrote.