Ford Losing Gay Votes

As New polls show Ford LOSING to Corker by a larger and larger margin, it looks like HFJr is losing gay voters in TN.

I'm not the only one! Harold Ford Jr.'s gay-bashing campaign is backfiring, as more and more LGBT voters in Tennessee will NOT be voting for him and rewarding his ant-gay political strategy!

Check out the great post and dicsussion over on TN Guerilla Women and read this EXCELLENT Letter to Harold Ford Jr. from Joyce Arnold in the Church Street Freedom Press in Nashville:

A Letter to Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN)

Mr. Ford,

No one wants, more than me, a change from the Republican majority in both U.S. Senate and House. To that end, my plan had been to vote for you.

My plans changed in the last few days, as I listened to you, once again, use the minority population of lesbians and gays in Tennessee, and around the nation, as a political strategy. That is ethically and morally unacceptable. In truth, you are "for Tennessee" only selectively. Some of us are clearly expendable.

I, and the many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens of Tennessee who are the constituents of whoever sits in the Senate and House as representatives of this state, deserve respect. You, Mr. Ford, have gone out of your way to show the opposite. I had convinced myself that I could cast a vote for you, toward hopes of a Democratic majority in the Senate. But after listening to your gratuitous statements following the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling earlier this week, I knew I could not cast a vote for someone who so shamelessly uses me.

We who are LGBT citizens of Tennessee are not an "issue" for your, or any other politician's, use. We, in fact, are not an "issue" -- we are individuals, real people who, like everyone else, simply want equality. We, and those who support us, are maligned when we work for that equality, most often by those purporting to speak for God. Your actions are no different, including your use of God, along with us, toward your own ends.

When someone continues to slap you down, no matter how many times you give that person another chance, the time comes when out of self-respect, you walk away. Based on conversations I've had with a number of people in the last few days, LGBT and heterosexual, I'm not the only one who has had enough, and is walking.

In general, the Tennessee Senate race is, from Mr. Corker as well as you, an embarrassment. Neither of you deserve to win. One of you will. And the fact is, as far as the civil rights of the LGBT minority of Tennessee are concerned, it won't make a bit of difference which one of you it is.

You, of course, won't read this, and I doubt anyone in your campaign will either. If someone does, I'm quite sure it will not make any difference to you. But at least I know I've taken the tiny step I needed to take, on behalf of "Liberty and justice for all" rather than for "some."

Joyce L. Arnold, Ph.D.
Church Street Freedom Press