BY JEREMY MOSS
"I have one last question for you. What's your position on gay marriage?"
"I'm in favor of it," I said.
"Why would you be in favor of it? I firmly believe that marriage is between a man and a woman," he replied, inquisitive but stern.
"Well for many reasons, but mostly because I'm gay and would like to get married someday. And if being against marriage equality is among your priorities then I don't think I'm your candidate," I said.
"Oh, hmm," he said, not expecting that answer from me after a lengthy conversation on other key issues at his doorstep. "Well, when you win your election, come back to my house because I'd like to discuss this further with you." And that was it.
When I ran for State Representative last year, my campaign team and I knocked on roughly 10,000 doors and that was the only anti-gay comment I directly heard. And it wasn't even that bad – from a person who largely acknowledged I was likely to win my election anyway. That's because the Southfield that I know has always been a welcoming and inclusive city, which the Detroit Free Press recently said is "known for its diversity of race, religion and sexual orientation," with strong relations between neighbors of differing backgrounds.
When I served on the Southfield City Council prior to being elected as State Representative, then-Mayor Brenda Lawrence, Councilman Ken Siver and I pushed for an anti-discrimination ordinance that included LGBT protections – a piece of legislation that won near universal praise from Southfield residents who came to the council meeting earlier this year to speak in favor of it. Strong support for our ordinance came not just from gay Southfielders but from allies in the black community who understood discrimination all too well.
Barbara Talley, a former councilwoman and Southfield's first African-American elected official, urged for the ordinance's passage saying, "Discrimination is a hellhound." Attorney Robert Willis, who petitioned the city for discrimination protections against racism 25 years ago, said that his initial decades-old request for "equal access did not include gay and transgender. That needs to be corrected." That's the Southfield that I know.
The racist and homophobic tone of the current mayoral race in Southfield, however, is not the Southfield I know. This has been the dirtiest city election that I've ever witnessed. First came the fliers littered in our neighborhoods that encouraged residents to "Get the blacks out of Southfield" and vote for white candidates, including Ken Siver who is running for mayor. Those flyers were, of course, not endorsed by the candidates featured on them and were "a dirty trick to try to incite people of color to go to the election in November and vote black" and against the candidates on the flier, according to Patricia Haynie, President of the Martin Luther King Task Force.
Then came the homophobic attacks against Ken, who is openly gay. His campaign signs were defaced with the words "fag" and "sodomite" spray-painted on them. That vandalism drew swift condemnation from nearly everyone in our community, except for Ken's opponent who "chalked it up as the cost of running for office," according to the Detroit News. Being called a fag and a sodomite should not be part of the cost of running for office and should not be tolerated by anyone. That type of attitude shared by Ken's opponent – who has an anti-LGBT history of her own – could change the city that I know into an intolerant city that I won't recognize.
That's why this election in Southfield is so critical and why Ken Siver has earned my strongest endorsement to be our next mayor. Some may seek to use dirty political tricks to tarnish our city's long-held reputation as a community that embraces its diversity, but Ken will strongly promote the Southfield that we know. I urge all Southfielders to elect Ken Siver.
