By Karen Ocamb

Before former Vice President Al Gore took the stage, the March 25 Human Rights Campaign gala at the Century Plaza Hotel was being affectionately dubbed, "the night Charo went long." The internationally famous "cuchi-cuchi" performer revved up the audience before launching into a campaign against the draconian anti-immigration bill sponsored by Wisconsin Republican Rep. James Sennsenbrenner.

Earlier that day, over 500,000 people swarmed downtown Los Angeles protesting the bill, passed by the House, which would make it a felony to be or help an illegal immigrant, among other measures. (A Senate committee subsequently altered the bill significantly though LGBT-related issues remained unaddressed. The bill headed to the Senate floor as IN Los Angeles magazine went to press.) "It was the most amazing collection of folks," openly gay, longtime labor activist John Perez told IN. "I've never seen a crowd with dedication like that. It was the largest social justice demonstration ever in Los Angeles and one of the largest ever in the country."

Perez also attended the March 27 funeral for former Assemblymember Marco Firebaugh and told IN that "marriage equality" was among the wishes parishioners prayed for. Firebaugh, 39, was running for the state Senate from southeast L.A. His gay friends and politicos concerned about retaining an LGBT-friendly state legislature felt the loss. Both Democratic candidates for governor -- Phil Angelides and Steve Westly -- support marriage equality, but a number of state legislators who voted for the California marriage equality bill are termed-out and may not be replaced by pro-gay marriage politicians.

"Whether or not there is a constitutional marriage initiative on the ballot, we could have a governor who would sign a marriage bill, but not a legislature to pass it," Seth Kilbourn, the new Political Director for Equality California (EQCA) told a gathering March 19. EQCA is part of the Equality for All political action committee that is raising money to help legislators who voted for the marriage equality bill and now face stiff re-election opposition because of it. "We have placed this center-stage. This is no longer a fringe issue," said Assemblymember Mark Leno, author of the marriage equality bill. Because of the "severity of the partisanship," electing pro-gay marriage legislators "makes a difference in our fate."

A March 22 Field Poll indicated that more Californians are leaning toward marriage equality. Of 1,000 adults polled, 44 percent of registered voters said they would support a bill legalizing marriage for same-sex couples. "When people are given the opportunity to think about and discuss issues like marriage for lesbian and gay couples, they move forward. The real backlash has been against those who spew hatred and fear," said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California.

Hatred and fear seemed to be the centerpiece of former Vice President Al Gore's professorial remarks at the HRC gala. Despite recent buzz about a draft-Gore movement, including from singer Melissa Etheridge who introduced him at the dinner ("I'd vote for him in 08"), Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen (there with partner Elizabeth Birch) does not think he'll run.

An audience that remembers how hard Gore fought for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) and a federal hate crimes bill, warmly welcomed Gore and his wife Tipper, who played drums with Etheridge during the Equality Rocks concert in 2000. In turn, Gore called the crowd "our chosen family." He jokingly introduced himself: "I'm Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States. Now I consider myself a recovering politician."

Gore said that the right wing has treated America "to a tutorial on fear," with reactionary screeds almost daily making the "threat" of same-sex marriage and gay adoption "on the scale of a mass terrorist attack." The radical right, Gore said, has a "conscious design" to target the LGBT community as an election year strategy. But with friends and allies like L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Dolores Huerta, the California NAACP, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, "we've seen eyes opening and hearts and minds change." But when the marriage equality bill arrived on the governor's desk, "he took advice from his friends in the White House" and vetoed the bill.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Gore supported the Defense of Marriage Act and told then-Advocate reporter Chris Bull "that with the history and tradition and the way our society understands marriage, there is a difference [between same- and opposite-sex relationships]. I think that difference should be respected. Again, I support protection for domestic partnership. But I do think there should be a respect for the difference in these partnerships and how the institution of marriage has always been understood."

But, in what might be called an "evolution in consciousness," Gore seemed to endorse marriage equality -- though he never actually came out and said that.

"It is that love, after all, that is at the heart of why everybody is here," Gore told the HRC audience." "That is what must be honored and respected. Your right to fall in love with who you fall in love with. And your right to expect that that will be recognized with the same dignity and honor that love is recognized for other couples. Love is transcendent and fulfilling and powerful and any force on earth that endeavors to make you feel that you should be ashamed for feeling genuine, deep love for another of your choosing is a form of oppression.

"Thomas Jefferson said, 'I have sworn on the honor of God, eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man.' Any force that tries to make you feel shame for being who you are, and loving who you love, is a form of tyranny over your mind. And it must be rejected, resisted, and defeated.

"After all -- for God's sake, you're asking for monogamy and military service. Is that to much to ask for? You're asking for the simple right to be who you are and to be free from intimidation and persecution and discrimination and injustice designed to make you hide from who you really are. You're asking to make your life alongside the person you fall in love with. You're asking for the right to have full and equal recognition for that relationship and to form a life-long bond. That's not too much to ask for. You're asking for the right to fight for our country and if necessary, to die for our country. That's not too much to ask. You're asking as Americans for individual dignity and that's not too much to ask....

"You know that what you are engaged in is the furtherance of a vision that is true and just and it does require the evolution of consciousness along a pathway that is a logical extension of what the United States of America has always promised to humankind. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. And the United States of America will, at some point say -- what you are asking is what you shall receive."

"Everything he said is open to interpretation, frankly," HRC President Joe Solmonese told IN. "He didn't really come out and make a definitive statement about marriage. What I think he was trying to do is keep it focused on the tactics of the right -- that regardless of where you may be on marriage, fear is a tactic designed to mobilize the base and demonize a group of people. But he carefully crafted this speech. What I heard was a series of observations about what's happening in the landscape of this country and much of what he said was, by design, left to the interpretation of the listener."

Democratic activist Rick Jacobs heard something different. "[It] was really a call for America to stand as what we have been for more than 200 years, to be that porous bastion of hope and grace that has struggled at times with itself, but has always risen to greater heights," Jacobs wrote in his Huffington Post blog.

But clarity on marriage equality has increasingly become a thorny issue for LGBT Democrats. Comedian and Air America talk show host Al Franken, who may run for the Senate against Norm Coleman in Minnesota, was very clear about his position at both an Access Now for Lesbian and Gay Equality breakfast March 24 and at the HRC gala, where he was honored along with Villaraigosa Special Assistant Torie Osborn. "I will be for equal rights for marriage because it's a civil right," Franken said. "This issue is easy for me to lead on." (Franken has started a PAC at www.midwestvaluespac.org.) On March 30, Franken featured Harvard classmate and gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides on his show and Angelides said, "This is where I reveal to the world where I saw Al Franken naked." (For the record, it was during a theatrical play, the Sacramento Bee reported.)

"Democrats have not learned how to skillfully sidestep the issue," Hilary Rosen told IN," and the DNC (Democratic National Committee) is not strategizing on how to deal with it. If the Democrats are so worried about [marriage equality], why don't they deal with it?"

It was a question raised by leaders from more than 20 leading LGBT and AIDS groups when they met with eight senators at a private March 16 meeting on Capitol Hill arranged by Sen. Hillary Clinton. "We talked about the way [senators] appear to be largely passive, doing nothing affirmative on LGBT issues ... in ways that actually are problematic for us and harmful to the work that we do," Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal, told the Washington Blade. "One of our concerns as a group is that they don't necessarily hear enough back from the community on how we hear and perceive the sometimes tortured and hair-splitting positions they try to take... We are tired of being seen as the embarrassment to the party."

In California, clear support for marriage equality has become a litmus test with EQCA's Kilbourn boasting about their endorsements: "These candidates are the real deal and we have the paper to prove it."

The lack of clarity, arguments over who supported marriage equality first, and serious concern over who can win against Republican challengers forced Stonewall Democratic Club to postpone their endorsements for governor and attorney general, the person who will argue gay marriage cases for the state. Though the Club's endorsement committee recommended former governor and current Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown for attorney general, a groundswell from anti-Brown and pro-City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo members threw the endorsement process into a frenzy. Brown supporters were incredulous that anyone would question Brown's LGBT credentials, given his pro-gay history at a time when it was not popular -- including appointing the country's first openly gay judges.

But Delgadillo's supporters argued that as governor, Brown signed the bill changing the state definition of marriage from the neutral two parties to a "man and a woman," thus setting up the marriage equality debate. Additionally, on the questionnaire about marriage equality, Brown said that he supported equal rights for everyone while Delgadillo plainly stated, "I support marriage equality." Though Brown eventually told Stonewall Political Director Jeff Book by phone that he did support marriage equality, Brown opponents groused that he did not put it in writing. Finally, on March 27, the club voted a "non-endorsement" -- a win for Delgadillo since members usually follow the committee's recommendations.

"I want everyone in the LGBT community to know I'm going to fight for them in June and in November as a marriage equality and pro-choice candidate. I'm proud Stonewall voted our way," Delgadillo told IN.

The committee also recommended Angelides but the endorsement motion failed to gain the 60 percent of votes cast so a motion to endorse Westly was put forth. That, too, failed by five votes. The club will re-consider the gubernatorial endorsement at their April 24 meeting in West Hollywood Park.