Nashvillians may recall that the city was embroiled a few months back in a sexual culture war that didn’t have anything to do with Sen. Bill Frist. But that’s about the best that can be said of a debate that was the legislative equivalent of a World Wrestling Entertainment bout.
Basically, when several Metro Council members decided to file a bill to protect Nashville’s gays and lesbians from discrimination in employment and housing, a homophobic freak show ensued, complete with creepy, out-of-town preachers protesting on the steps of the Metro Courthouse. When it became clear that the city’s conservative legislative body, liberally populated with fundamentalist Christians of the Baptist and Church of Christ sort, wouldn’t go along, sponsors substituted a diluted bill. When that came to a vote, it ended in a tie, at which point Vice Mayor Howard Gentry cast the deciding vote—a “no.”
It was a monumental loss to the gay and lesbian community, which fought for months for the bill’s passage. So it stands to reason that the city’s monthly newspaper for the gay and lesbian community, Out & About, would endorse Gentry, the man who doomed the bill, in the Aug. 7 election. Wait a minute. Huh?
It gets weirder.
In this month’s issue, the newspaper not only endorsed Gentry but also backed former Metro Council member Charles French, who, not that many years ago, was the city’s self-appointed anti-gay voice, most notably standing up during a council meeting in the early 1990s to say that a gay softball tournament planned here was unwelcome.
Out & About managing editor Brent Meredith says he expected some furrowed brows about the newspaper’s endorsements and is frankly more pleased with having some confused—even angry—readers than not.
“We didn’t necessarily want everybody in the gay community to agree with us 100 percent,” he says. “If nothing else, we just wanted everybody to stop and think—who’s in office, what are they doing, what are the issues? And we’ve accomplished that.”
As for the newspaper’s support of Gentry—and, for that matter, Mayor Bill Purcell, who was conspicuously MIA on the anti-discrimination bill—Meredith is clear to say that those are “qualified” endorsements in races where there are no credible challengers.
“We knew they were going to be reelected, so we endorsed them, saying, 'Here are some areas we think you need to work on.’ We didn’t want to be like, 'You pissed us off, so for the next four years we’re not going to be for you.’ ”
In a well-written editorial, Out & About made note of Gentry’s critical role in the failed gay rights bill, and challenged the vice mayor’s claim that there’s not ongoing discrimination against gays and lesbians in Nashville. “We endorse you, vice mayor. But at the same time, we challenge you to stand up—be counted as the leader we have known you to be,” the editorial reads. “If one employee of the city you purport to lead has suffered unfairly at the hands of bigots, haters and homophobes, it is your duty to move heaven and earth to protect that one.”
As for Purcell, the editorial contained a justifiable, if devastating, blow: “Bill, we thought we knew you.... We endorse you, Mayor Purcell, because you have been a friend in the past, and we hope you will be one in the future.”
Meanwhile, Charles French, an affable, if unpredictable guy, seems to have turned over a new leaf, it not an entire forest. He secured the newspaper’s endorsement in part, Meredith says, because he wrote and asked for it, then told the editorial staff that he’s been better educated about gay and lesbian issues since his days as the poster child for the intolerant.
“He held out an olive branch, so we gave him the benefit of the doubt and accepted it,” Meredith says. “We’re going to hold him accountable for it and hope that he doesn’t break it in half.”
Also noteworthy is the newspaper’s support of Scene contributor and conservative Roger Abramson, a former employee of the Tennessee Family Institute and a candidate in the District 31 Metro Council race. Go figure. Abramson, though, is refreshingly unpredictable and says he would have voted for the anti-discrimination measure, which explains the nod.
