By Ramy Eletreby

The People to Arnold: NO!

Aside from his status as a former action star, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is most famous for his repeated declarations that he only wants to do the bidding of "the people" of California. On Nov. 8, "the people" unequivocally rejected the governor, voting "No" on four ballot propositions upon which Schwarzenegger staked his political reputation.

Prop. 74, the teacher tenure initiative, failed by 55 percent; Prop. 75, an effort to limit union political activity, failed by 53 percent; Prop. 76, which would have capped state spending and given the governor more budgetary power, failed by 62 percent; and Prop. 77, the redistricting measure, failed by 59 percent.

Schwarzenegger posited himself as the reformer who needed the initiative "tools" to succeed. He laughingly referred to his opponents -- Democratic legislators, nurses, firefighters, and teachers -- as "girlie-men" and "special interests" impeding his reform movement.

But the people didn't buy it. Numerous polls indicated that Californians didn't want a narrowly focused, expensive special election unconnected to more serious problems such as the war in Iraq, gas prices, and other energy and economic issues.

"We lost because the voters did not want a special election," Schwarzenegger spokesperson Rob Stutzman told reporters Nov. 9.

"I take full responsibility for this election. I take full responsibility for its failure," Schwarzenegger told reporters Nov. 10. "If I was to make another Terminator movie, I would tell Terminator to travel back in time to tell Arnold not to have another special election."

"In Los Angeles, we had members of the building trades, correctional officers, cops, teachers, and nurses campaigning side-by-side with Democratic and LGBT activists against the governor. It was the greatest example of coalition politics we've seen since Tom Bradley was elected mayor of L.A. And Arnold has no one to blame but himself. For a governor who began with unlimited potential, his broken promises and right-wing partisan agenda turned the people against him -- in droves," Eric Bauman, openly gay chair of the L.A. County Democratic Party told IN. "The vote in Los Angeles County was so overwhelming that it exceeded that of Orange, Riverside, and San Diego Counties combined."

Republicans were also displeased with Team Arnold. "They ran a Republican campaign in a Democratic state, and they saw that yesterday in the results," Republican analyst Allan Hoffenblum told the Associated Press. "They made bad political decisions all the way through."

"Schwarzenegger was elected as a centrist. He's governed as a centrist. But over the last several months, Californians have seen only the conservative Arnold," Republican strategist Dan Schnur wrote in his FlashReport weblog. "But by highlighting only his rightward flank, Schwarzenegger made it much easier for his opponents to caricature him as an extremist."

Indeed, the progressive opposition coalition and many gays upbraided Schwarzenegger for hiring President Bush's evangelical wrangler Gary Marx to motivate the Christian base.

"The Alliance for a Better California has been advised to expect an influx of 3,000-5,000 evangelical Christians to our state who will be working to pass Prop. 73, the ballot initiative for parental consent," which Team Arnold quietly tied to the other measures, the coalition wrote in an e-mail widely circulated by Stonewall Democratic Club.

"The governor's strategy of vetoing marriage equality legislation and supporting restrictions on reproductive rights in an effort to turn out right-wing voters for his ballot measures not only failed, it backfired," said Geoffrey Kors, executive director of Equality California, which also worked closely with the Alliance coalition. "Hopefully the governor will now realize that pandering to the right is not effective and will come out and strongly oppose those efforts,"

"Like so many unprincipled politicians, and contrary to his frequent portrayal of a heroic, independent reformer, Gov. Schwarzenegger made a political calculation in this election to curry favor with the extreme factions of his party at the expense of civil rights for gay and lesbian people" by vetoing the marriage equality bill, said Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. "It was a vain attempt to boost flagging support for his initiatives, at the expense of our civil rights, and it justly failed. Other elected officials should take note. We cannot, and will not, allow politicians to pursue their own political agenda at the expense of our civil rights."

Gay conservative-leaning political blogger Matt Szabo agreed, noting that gay marriage supporter New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the "sole Republican to triumph in a major election" on Nov. 8.

"I am not suggesting that the key to Republican victories is support for same-sex marriage. But that fact that Bloomberg -- a fiscal conservative and social liberal -- was the only Republican to emerge victorious amid a Democratic landslide suggests that the Rovian-evangelical strategy's effectiveness might have expired," he wrote on Mattszabo.com. "The lesson from the massacre of 2005 is that Californians are not ideologues. We are socially liberal fiscally conservative freedom-loving pragmatists. We recalled Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to reform a broken government, not to impose a right-wing agenda." -- Karen Ocamb

Students Can Publish

Under pressure from an ongoing ACLU lawsuit, on Nov. 4 school officials permitted the award-winning East Bakersfield High School newspaper The Kernal to publish a series of stories about sexual orientation in their November edition, according to the ACLU (www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights).

The series was originally slated to run at the end of the school year last May, but school officials pulled the articles, claiming that they posed a threat to students. "Not only were the threats the principal cited last spring unsubstantiated, but the law is clear that the principal may not just throw up his hands and resort to censorship when he is concerned about student safety," said ACLU attorney Christine P. Sun. "The right to free speech requires that the principal protect students who want to speak out about important issues, and not cede control of the campus to school bullies."

"I'm glad that because we didn't back down the articles will be printed," said Janet Rangel, a student plaintiff in the lawsuit. "It's important for schools to be a place where students learn and feel comfortable."

L.A. County Launches Anti-Smoking Campaign Aimed at LGBT Community

On Oct. 27, L.A. County's Tobacco Control and Prevention Project launched The Last Drag campaign to promote tobacco cessation to the LGBT community, whose smoking rates are disproportionately higher than the general population. According to the California Department of Health Services, there is a 30.4 percent smoking rate among LGBT individuals as compared to a 15.4 percent smoking rate in the general population. Smoking is most prominent among the LGBT youth (18-24) with 37.4 percent of LGBT young men and 47 percent of LGBT young women smoking.

County Stops AIDS Funding Cuts -- Temporarily

In a Nov. 3 memo to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, director of the Department of Health Services, said some specific county funding negotiations and contract renewals for Ryan White CARE Act grants with HIV/AIDS service providers have been temporarily suspended in an attempt to avoid previously recommended cuts. Additionally, the department and the Office of AIDS Programs and Policy will work with the HIV Commission and county auditors to try to identify areas where the county can cut spending. After an Oct. 28 meeting, $800,000 was identified for possible savings, including $500,000 from a proposed lease for new OAPP administrative space.

The memo was issued in response to an Oct. 25 directive from the Board of Supervisors following complaints from AIDS service providers and the HIV Commission about planned cost reductions while OAPP was simultaneously requesting a funding increase for administrative costs.

"It's a good first, partial step to bring closure to the possibility of service cutbacks now," Craig Vincent-Jones, HIV Commission executive director, told IN. "I look forward to continuing work with OAPP to identify the remaining administrative savings needed to close the gap."

For more information, contact Vincent-Jones at cvincent-jones@lachiv.org.

L.A. Center Raises $420,000 at Fun-Style Gala

Forget the Special Election! Apparently the most disconcerting thing on the minds of gay men was how to forsake the tux and dress "casual cocktail" for the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's annual gala, reported Center Chief Executive Officer Lorri L. Jean to an audience of about 1,000 at the Century Plaza Hotel on Nov. 5.

The "bold" dress-down affair raised more than $420,000 in an evening that acknowledged long-time Center supporters Fred Paul and Eric Shore, honored with the Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award, and Warner Bros. Entertainment's President Peter Roth, accepting the Corporate Vision Award from Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick.

Surrounded by underwear models, Martha Wash sang "It's Raining Men" before Jean recounted her moving and sometimes "humiliating" experiences on the LifeCycle AIDS Ride, about which a documentary was made for LOGO TV. She also underscored the urgency of fighting the right wing's upcoming anti-gay ballot initiative.

But the night belonged to Hairspray star Bruce Vilanch and Bravo My Life on the D List comedienne Kathy Griffin, whose biting, bawdy and irreverent observations drew many gasps and belly laughs. "Arnold [Schwarzenegger] has had more face-lifts than I have," Griffin said about the California governor.

WeHo and Castro Pull Huge Halloween Turnouts

This year's free West Hollywood Halloween Carnival on Oct. 31 attracted over 300,000 participants (including American Idol host Ryan Seacrest) with only five arrests, according to city officials. Though San Francisco's city-run Halloween in the Castro District also pulled about 300,000, according to the Bay Area Reporter, the gated, $5-donation, alcohol-free event experienced two stabbings and several arrests (another account said up to 12) with 75 incidents in one area alone.