Why I’m Voting for State Senator Scott Wiener
Homophobia is still rampant throughout the US, and easily weaponized | #TC83
Welcome to Third Cultured, an international politics and LGBTQ+ culture newsletter, written by yours truly, Kyle Borland. Reach out with feedback, suggestions, tips, and ideas at kgborland23@gmail.com.
My goal is to create an engaged community informed about foreign affairs – the messy politics of our planet – while understanding the unique role Queer people play in the US and the world-at-large. I hope that’s you!
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This edition:
Why I’m Voting for State Senator Scott Wiener (D–SF)
Hot Spots
Why I’m Voting for State Senator Scott Wiener (D–SF)
Over the past two months, the obstacles gay men still face became visceral a presence from coast-to-coast and it came at us from both political parties. On the Left, we had Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse lose to 15-term incumbent Richie Neal (MA01) in the Massachusetts primary, in large part because of a coordinated ratfucking by the state’s Democratic Party.
On the Right, San Francisco’s State Senator Scott Wiener and his staff are being harassed by QAnon (if you don’t know about these sociopaths, consider yourself lucky) for passing SB-145. What horrible thing does it do you may ask? It makes anal and oral sex equal to vaginal sex in regard to sex offender cases. Even in one-party Blue State California, current laws are weaponized by homophobic parents.
Before SB-145, an 18-year-old male convicted of having oral or anal sex with a 17-year-old male would be required to register as a sex offender, while a 24-year-old male convicted of having penile-vaginal sex with a 15-year-old female would not be automatically required to register – it would be left up to the judge.
Unfortunately, the fascists in the Republican Party are well aware that their base is overwhelmingly illiterate and easily susceptible to homophobic smears. Not only have Republican leaders in the state of California jumped onto the debunked QAnon conspiracy to score easy points, but national heavyweights like US Senator Ted Cruz (R–TX), Rush Limbaugh, and Donald Trump Jr. have piled on against Senator Wiener.
To be completely honest with y’all, I broke down on Friday morning when I saw Don Jr.’s tweet.
It was overwhelming to see the smear campaign escalate and spread over the course of two months until it finally reached the halls of the White House. What should’ve been easily debunked by a functionally literate electorate and a competent press was devolved into death threats and harassment campaigns against Senator Wiener and his staff. Even on the California Senate floor as the senators passed the bill, they warned each other about what was to come as the tightly wound forces that are always ready to label gay men “pedophiles” and “predators” readied their torches and pitchforks.
After the past few homophobia-driven months, my vote for San Francisco’s state senator has weighed on me.
In 2016, I followed Bernie’s endorsement (being newish to San Francisco) and backed then-Supervisor Jane Kim over then-Supervisor Scott Wiener. Similarly, in the March primary, I voted for Jackie Fielder (Wiener’s democratic socialist challenger). Fielder’s critique of Wiener’s record on homelessness and his connections to law enforcement was particularly strong and he seemed to agree after seeing her strong showing in the primary, capturing 33.45 percent of the vote. Following the George Floyd protests, Wiener openly disavowed his past stances, returned donations from law enforcement agencies, and provided a detailed plan on how he is and would continue to support reforms to the criminal justice system.
I am thankful for Jackie’s campaign because pressure from her and her supporters was a necessary signal to a wonk like Wiener that it was long past time to pivot on criminal justice. It probably doesn’t hurt that campaign finance is more democratic than it used to be and so politicians are less reliant on corrupt, well-funded organizations like the POA or sheriff’s association.
However – when I couple the senator’s pivot with my raging fury at the attacks gay men are facing in the US (the supposed “homo empire”) – I know my vote is all but cast. For his unflinching pursuit to expand LGBTQ+ rights for queer Californians, to his nation-leading support of public transit and urban mobility, to the sheer volume of his work (he passed more bills in 2020 than any other legislator, and it wasn’t close):
I am voting to re-elect State Senator Scott Wiener.
Now for some personal updates! My partner and I are taking a week-long trip up to Olympic National Park. It’s the first holiday we’ve taken since Memorial Day 2019, and so it is long overdue. To honor my partner taking PTO and to truly enjoy unplugging as much as possible, I will not publish again until the week of Sept 14 (at the earliest). However, I did make some technical equipment investments (like every other basic bitch, I now own a fancy microphone and a ring light), and I can’t wait to dive into new types of content. Become a paid subscriber, so you don’t miss the good stuff!
Before any of that though, I’m going to go recharge with my man and some old friends.
Stay safe and healthy, beautiful people. And, thanks for reading.
xoxo,
Kyle (@kgborland)
PS – Some great reads worth your time.
A Perfect Storm Sank Progressive Challenger Alex Morse In Mass (HuffPost)
In truth, though the politically motivated accusations of sexual impropriety may have hurt Morse, the race was always more about local dynamics than the out-of-state poll watchers understood ― and none of those dynamics favored Morse. Neal enjoys a deep popularity in the district that seems impervious to accusations of corruption. Morse’s mayoralty, heralded by Holyoke’s emerging Puerto Rican majority, has been marked by incessant conflict with a conservative City Council that happens to represent the same Irish American constituency that makes up Neal’s base. And Neal’s endless heap of campaign cash, drawn almost entirely from wealthy individuals and corporations, allowed him and his allies to broadcast the criticisms of Morse’s mayoralty within Holyoke across the geographically vast district.
The discredited allegations against Morse, which coincided with the start of early mail-in voting, likely added to a vague public sense that whatever Neal’s flaws, Morse was not a suitable replacement.
Morse and his campaign, however, see the smear as a pivotal blow to Morse’s candidacy, though they concede that there was no one factor that did him in. They note that voters in the district began receiving their mail-in ballots in the days after the incriminating Daily Collegian story was published, and they tie it to Morse’s weaker performance among early voters in key municipalities. For example, in the city of Pittsfield, Neal ran up the score in early voting while Morse had a narrow edge on Election Day.
The benefits that Morse reaped nationally from the Intercept’s reporting, his allies claim, were felt far less on the ground due to local media outlets that covered the initial claims more diligently than the later evidence. And both because of the media maelstrom and the decision by backers such as the Sunrise Movement to pause their support following the allegations, the campaign, these Morse supporters say, lost a critical week it needed to get out Morse’s core message: that Neal’s reliance on corporate money has prevented him from properly serving the district’s ordinary residents.
Jesus walks into a drag bar: Birmingham’s alternative drag scene (Scalawag)
The Unlikely Kennedy Who Ended the Kennedy Dynasty (Politico)
Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’ (The Atlantic)
Hot Spots
1 in 8: The US is facing a food crisis as one in every eight Americans is going hungry.
$364.5 million: The Biden/Harris ticket pulled in more than $300m in August, a new monthly record for presidential fundraising, from more than 4 million donors.
Australia: The nation’s economy entered into a recession for the first time in 30 years.
Belarus: The Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – imposed travel sanctions on President Alexander Lukashenko and 29 other Belarusian officials for their role in rigging the nation’s recent elections, signaling their frustration at Western power’s hesitancy to act. In response, the US is considering imposing sanctions on seven Belarusians involved in falsifying the results and in violence against peaceful protesters and threatened to sanction Russia if it were to intervene overtly with force. The EU, Canada, and Britain are working with the US to join their sanctions on Belarus (and Russia should Moscow intervene).
Budget: US debt will exceed the size of the economy for first time since WWII in 2021.
Commander-in-chief: According to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University, active-duty troops prefer Uncle Joe to Donald Trump. Even Fox News has Biden up in AZ, NC, and WI. (Graphic: Statista)
COVID: The US announced it will not join the 172 countries, including all of its major allies, in the WHO-led global vaccine distribution effort because the Trump administration views the organization as a puppet of the CCP. The CDC told states to be ready to distribute a vaccine by November. (Trump is gonna lie and say there is one even if there isn’t just for the votes…)
Democratic cities: Trump ordered federal funds to be withheld from NYC, DC, Seattle, and Portland for allowing “anarchy, violence, and destruction.”
Espionage: Novichok, the nerve agent calling card of Russian espionage, was used in a failed assassination attempt on Alexei Navalny, according to German officials. The poisoning has reignited pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to block Russia’s Nord Stream 2. This is the latest in a series of attacks from Moscow following Russia’s 2015 hack of the German Bundestag, the 2018 Novichok poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK, or the assassination in Berlin last year of a Chechen separatist. | Austria caught an agent spying for Turkey.
Ethiopia: The US paused $100m in aid to Ethiopia over its dispute with Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile. It’s clear Cairo called in a favor to their favorite despot so they could focus on helping Haftar win in Libya.
France: Paris announced one of its senior military officers was spying for Russia. Meanwhile, Macron is in Lebanon using his “political capital” to help push reforms.
The French leader said he plans to engage with the new prime minister-designate and all Lebanese political parties in parliament — including those he doesn’t agree with. Macron said he wants credible commitments from political party leaders that they’ll make reforms, including a concrete timetable for implementing changes and holding a parliamentary election within “six to 12 months.” He also said he wants to implement a "demanding" follow-up mechanism on these pledges.
India: Chinese and Indian troops faced off again over the “Line of Control,” which marks the two nuclear powers disputed border in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas. Luckily, this incident reported no casualties unlike June’s skirmishes and the following tensions, but both have amassed thousands of additional troops and advanced weapons on the border. With Modi and Xi at the helms, this won’t cool down anytime soon. The Indian economy contracted by almost 24 percent last quarter, the largest decline of any major economy.
Japan: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is Shinzo Abe’s heir apparent to succeed him as Prime Minister, following his resignation last week due to illness. Abe and Taro Aso, a deputy prime minister and the other major kingpin in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, endorsed Suga as the "continuity candidate" for the Abe administration, sidelining former defense minister (/vocal Abe critic) Shigeru Ishiba.
Military Affairs: The Fort Hood’s commander was removed following the murder of several soldiers. | The US Marine Corps has never had a Black four-star general, unlike the other major armed forces, while it has honored 72 white men with the rank.
Montenegro: The three opposition parties promised to maintain the nation’s EU membership trajectory after narrowly defeating the Democratic Party of Socialists, which has been in power for decades.
Nuclear weapons: China is close to achieving the triad, the capability to launch nuclear missiles by land, air, and sea, and will double its nuclear arsenal over 10 years.
Public health: The CDC issued an eviction ban until EOY. (You read that right.)
South China Sea: The Philippines announced it would not blacklist Chinese companies from participating in infrastructure projects despite US concerns.
Taiwan: Taipei launched a military modernization effort as tensions escalate with Beijing.
At the same time, Taiwan cannot afford to compete plane for plane, ship for ship, tank for tank against the far larger People’s Liberation Army, according to military analysts. They argue resources would be better used on capabilities that would slow or even cripple an invading force.
That includes sea mines, submarines and missile systems that could destroy Chinese aircraft and warships before they reach the island. Others have suggested training units for guerrilla warfare to grind down conventional forces of the type the Chinese would land in an invasion, replicating a strategy used by smaller countries facing larger adversaries, like Estonia or Finland.
US Agency for Global Media: Journalists at Voice for America and the Open Technology Fund are requesting an investigation into USAGM from an Inspector General for “breaching a firewall provision that is supposed to protect government-funded media agencies from political interference.” (They, rightfully, don’t want to be turned into Russia Today or the Global Times, but for the Trump administration.)
Venezuela: President Maduro pardoned 110 political opponents, including U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó, as he hopes to sway voters to his side in the upcoming legislative elections. Meanwhile, the US prepares tougher oil sanctions.
Xinjiang: The CCP forced the region’s Uighurs to take traditional Chinese medicine during the lockdown.
