By Rex Wockner
SAN DIEGO – Some 400 people turned out for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association's annual convention, held Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 – a dramatic drop from the 650 people who attended last year's confab in Miami.
NLGJA officials blamed the lower turnout on the holiday weekend, the fact that the group has more members in the eastern part of the nation than in the west, and the reality that continued downsizing in the mainstream media means fewer media companies are paying the hefty registration fees and travel expenses to send their journalists to professional conventions.
Next year's convention will be back east, in Washington, D.C., and the 2009 convention will be hosted in Montreal.
One convention highlight was a rare public appearance by gay legend and curmudgeon Larry Kramer, 72, author of "Faggots," "The Normal Heart" and "The Tragedy of Today's Gays," as well the founder of ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and Gay Men's Health Crisis.
Kramer had been lured to the convention by being convinced it would be nice to also spend some time with his brother, who lives part-time in the ultra-posh San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe.
Kramer was interviewed onstage by Hank Plante, a longtime openly-gay reporter at KPIX-TV in San Francisco, and then took questions from the assembled LGBT journalists.
He didn't break any new ground in the interview, but the format was unusual for Kramer who, when he does make public appearances, usually presents a prepared speech.
The gay population is far too passive and apathetic these days, Kramer said. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT political group, is ineffective, he said. And presidential candidates throw gays crumbs, and gays don't demand more.
"I want so much for us," he said. "But sadly, I continue to be disappointed in us.
"If you want the freedom … you have to find a way. Just don't be so passive. We are capable of so much more."
In a hallway interview, Kramer weighed in on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's expected veto of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, which is expected to pass the California Legislature again this year.
Schwarzenegger vetoed an identical bill in 2005 – the only time any U.S. legislature has voted to open the institution to same-sex couples. "People in California have to be prepared to march in celebration or in protest," Kramer said. "If he signs it, then there should be a massive celebration, and if he doesn't sign it, there should be a humongous demonstration of anger, which there wasn't last time.
"It's shocking that the gay population in California has been invisible on all this," he continued. "You also need to have a massive protest before Schwarzenegger acts. Tell him, 'Sign that bill or else.'
"You need to have a lot of angry gay people. You tell him, 'We are angry you sold us down the river so far, and we won't let you do it again.'"
