FEAR AND MOURNING: POST-MORTEM OF AN ELECTION - 1990

© 1990 by Stuart Norman

Written immediately after the 1990 election, this article was not accepted by any of the major gay publications. Senator Jesse Helms has been quieter on anti-gay and other discriminatory issues until recently. Certainly he has lost much of his former power and appeal, but he is back in the news again now that the Republicans have taken control of Congress. And true to form he’s put his foot in his mouth in a big way by criticizing the President in terms that sound like a threat. This bigot now heads the Foreign Relations Committee. Gantt ran against him again in 1996 and lost.


        Jesse won again. Challenger Harvey Gantt lost. Those are the obvious facts, but there are lesser-known ones to consider. How and why could this dinosaur of a political man win, especially with so much of the nation against him? It’s part of the nature of North Carolina and the South, still trying to be independent from the rest of the nation and yet traditional. One of our progressive columnists recently wrote that we elect Jesse because he’s ours’. There is no one else like him. To that we can heave a sigh of relief and say, “Thank Goddess.”
        I know many good people who probably voted for Jesse. Many of them are not homophobic, but do not understand what Jesse represents to us. They vote for Jesse because they think he serves North Carolina best in economic concerns and traditional values. Many vote for him because of his fiscal position alone, not considering even their own civil rights being threatened.
        It was the nastiest political campaign on American history. Jesse used every smear possible. Gantt stuck to the issues and hit Helms hard as his best opponent. Thus Helms was forced to expose himself on national television as a small-minded, spiteful man backed into a corner. He refused a debate, accusing the media of unfairness toward him. However, because of this campaign many North Carolinians became better educated, and there was record registration.
        Harvey Gantt lost because he was up against a powerful, established and experienced political organization which raised enormous sums of money, and being black, suffered the vestiges of racism. Demographics show that 58% of Helms vote was from those over age 60 - those more likely to hold conservative views.
        Yet for many of us native to North Carolina, Jesse Helms is a disgrace to the many good aspects of our state, for a quality of life that bade me return even from the gay mecca of San Francisco. Too, it’s here that a sense of the old gay movement still exists and much work to be done within the progressive communities.
        Although the South, North Carolina not excepted, has been traditionally Democratic, it is of a conservative nature often moreso than traditional Republicans. Therefore with the rise of the new Republican Party in the 1980s, many Democrats flocked to its ranks. Yet here in North Carolina, there are still many Democrats who vote for Jesse Helms and who sport Republican colors all but in name. It is one of the essential contradictions of life in the South. And it is slow to change.
        Jesse Helms perhaps represents the worst within us. My personal belief considers him the greatest evil in the U. S. Senate since Joseph McCarthy. But he doesn’t have quite that influence. For years I’ve hears rumors that many Senators consider him a bad joke. Yes, he represents powerful tobacco and textile interests, which are major components of North Carolina’s economy, and of course he is a focal point for the religious right’s social agenda. It is widely known that his wife is the biggest slumlord in our state capitol, Raleigh. He has hurt our community badly, not just by railing against us and inciting homophobia, but by blocking funds for AIDS education and research, which ultimately hurts everyone. However, we must reconsider him as a focal point for us, for everything against which we must take a moral stance. Jesse Helms is our best enemy. We clearly know what he represents - what I consider a clear and present evil.
         Jesse has only barely re-won his incumbency. He has faced his hardest fight and his power has been reduced. With the eyes of the nation on him and North Carolina, he will be watched closely. Many Americans, I surmise, oppose Helm’s beliefs. The acquittals in Cleveland over the Maplethorpe exhibit or of Two Live Crew on obscenity charges demonstrate as a people we no longer accept the judgment of other authorities to exercise control over what we read, view, hear and do in private space. The ideals Helms supports are waning ones. Let’s make sure that there is no next time for him and his ilk.
        Some of you may be concerned now that Helms may strike back harder at us because we have so openly opposed him. This is a possible scenario. But that will pull the debate further out into the public realm where we can demonstrate not only his homophobia, but also his bigotry and pettiness.
        What can we do to fight his influence? Speak the truth, show the flaws in his positions, his inhumanity, further isolate him and remember that his position is increasingly becoming more isolated as the people move away from his beliefs. Finally, subvert everything that he stands for and in your relationships with others.
        As a founder of the Tarheel leather Club, which created the “Beat Jesse” campaign that drew support from so many of you across the nation, I wish to thank you for your support. You have made Jesse’s win less of a victory. My brothers and sisters, let us pull together to fight this evil.

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