By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

Some were responsible for public policy that infringes on our rights. Others were looking to stir up community hatred and resentment against us. Many were simply venal and ignorant politicians who should know better.

Here’s a list of folks we hope will actually get a clue about our community in 2008.

The Largo, Fla., City Commissioners

Last winter, Largo, Fla., City Manager Steve Stanton, who held his job for 14 years, had to defend himself from being fired. His transgression? Transitioning into a female body.

Stanton had planned on gradually revealing his transition, but an expose by a local newspaper forced him to reveal his situation earlier than he expected. Almost immediately, his job was in danger.

The city commissioners asserted that Stanton should be fired not because he was transitioning but because they had lost faith in his abilities. When Stanton’s hearings started, Largo Mayor Patricia Gerard defended her city manager. “We have a choice to make,” Gerard said. “We can go back to intolerance or we can be the city of progress.”

The Largo City Commissioners chose the former. Stanton lost his job by the end of March.

Gen. Peter Pace

Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, came under fire when, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune editorial board, he called gays “immoral.”

“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,” Pace said. “I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.”

As such, Pace added that he thought the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy should stay in place.

Numerous gay rights leaders were outraged at the comments. C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said, “General Pace’s comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces.”

Pace was later replaced in his job after Defense Secretary Robert Gates feared a contentious renomination process.

“North Shore Student Advocacy”

In March, North Shore Student Advocacy, a Deerfield-based ad hoc parents’ rights group, took out an advertisement in the Deerfield Review denouncing a talk given by Deerfield High School’s gay-straight alliance. The talk was part of a course to acclimate freshman to high school life.

Headlined “What’s going on in Freshman Advisory?,” the ad stated, “We believe these students are being used to further the cause of gay activists in the high school.”

It went on to pose several questions, including, “Why do they target freshman classes?” and “Where are your panels of ‘socially awkward kids,’ ‘fat kids,’ ‘kids with speech problems’ or ‘handicapped kids?’”

NSSA, it turned out, only had four members and only one of them had children at the school. The group was founded by Lora Sue Hauser, a board member of the Illinois Family Institute.

Deerfield High School stuck by its syllabus, however, and refused to alter the course. Superintendent Sue Hebson said the ad failed to stir up much additional opposition to the class, adding, “Our view is that we’re not taking a view. We’re not promoting homosexuality. We’re promoting the right of every student to feel safe.”

The Rev. R. Albert Mohler

Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and one of the country’s preeminent evangelical leaders, in March speculated on the possibility of using prenatal hormonal treatment to ensure that babies would not be born gay.

Writing on his website, Mohler advised his readers that they should brace for the possibility of a biological determination for homosexuality being discovered.

He said that such a finding would not alter his opinion on the intrinsic sinfulness of homosexuality, but that he would endorse prenatal hormonal therapy to reverse it. No such technology has been developed.

Jennifer Chrisler of Family Pride, a group supporting GLBT families, said of Mohler and his colleagues, “In one breath, they say the sanctity of an unborn life is unconditional, and in the next breath, it’s okay to perform medical treatments on them because of their own moral convictions, not because there’s anything wrong with the child.”

Rep. Bill Black

A bill that would have made it possible for many transgenders to have their Illinois birth certificate reflect their current gender reduced the Illinois House to the level of a middle school cafeteria April 17.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), would have allowed transgenders to have their birth certificates changed after certification from an in-state physician. But not only did the House vote down the bill, many members used the occasion to show their ignorance, if not contempt, of trans men and women.

Black (R-Danville) said, “Maybe you went somewhere and a voodoo doctor said you were a man, where you had been a woman. …I’ve often thought that perhaps I was a female trapped in a male body. I know—it scares me, too. I wish I didn’t have to shave everyday.”

Other lawmakers were quick to join in. Even Rep. Art Turner (D-Chicago), who voted for the bill, switched to a falsetto voice to ask, “Have all voted who wish?”

Feigenholtz was appalled by her colleagues’ display. “I never expected it and I never in my 12 years in the House heard such awful things,” she said. “It was so premeditated and vicious.”

James Holsinger

As with many people nominated by the current White House, it was almost inevitable that something was wrong with Holsinger.

President Bush’s nominee for the surgeon general post, Holsinger came under fire this past summer after it was discovered he voted to expel a lesbian pastor from the United Methodist Church and that he wrote in 1991 that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy—not the most enlightened view for the spokesperson for the nation’s public health agenda.

Democrats have fortunately not given Holsinger a pass on these viewpoints. Months after his hearing, he has yet to be confirmed. In fact, Democratic leaders have used parliamentary tactics to make sure the Senate has technically still been in session over breaks, to prevent Bush from making a recess appointment.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich

The governor never seemed to miss an opportunity for a feud in 2007—in fact, he ignited one close to home for GLBTs and persons with HIV/AIDS at the Chicago Pride Parade.

Anonymous fliers were distributed at the parade that said Reps. Greg Harris, Sara Feigenholtz and John Fritchey had voted against housing for persons with HIV/AIDS.

The fliers, according to various sources, were distributed at the behest of Seth Webb, Blagojevich’s director of special operations.

Fritchey said he and Harris and Feigenholtz were targeted because of their outspoken support of HIV/AIDS funding and because they had voted for the House budget, which called for no new taxes and only small increases in funding for education and other state programs. Harris said at the time that the funding would likely have been increased in the revision stages.

Larry Craig

2007 will be the year that brought “I have a very wide stance” into our lexicon.

The Republican senator from Idaho became part of a seemingly endless stream of embarassed homophobic politicians after he got nabbed in a sex sting operation June 11 at the Minneapolis airport.

Rumors of Craig’s sexuality had long floated around both Idaho and Washington, D.C. The three-term senator has been a vocal opponent of gay marriage rights and opposes hate crimes protections for GLBT crime victims.

Craig pleaded guilty to the Minneapolis incident, but later unsuccessfully tried to reverse his plea. Much to the GOP’s chagrin, he decided to serve out his last 15 months in office.

By December, eight men had come forward to say that they either had sex with the Singing Senator or were targets of his sexual advances, according to the Idaho Statesman.

Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee

Campaign rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates showed that much of the GOP still perceives GLBTs to be expendable political constituents.

Huckabee has for his part at least been consistent in his disregard for GLBTs. In 1992, while a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Huckabee told AP that AIDS patients should be isolated from the general public. In an interview Dec. 9, Huckabee stood by those comments.

Giuliani, who has had to apply some tortured logic to reconcile his past cross-dressing and temporary cohabitaton with a gay couple with the GOP’s values agenda, was asked on “Meet the Press” whether he agreed with Huckabee’s remarks. He answered, “My moral views on this come from the Catholic Church. …It’s the acts—it’s the various acts that people perform that are sinful, not the orientation that they have.” Well, at least Rudy would know…

Romney has similarly had to disavow past support for the GLBT community. He once vowed to be more progressive than Ted Kennedy when it came to gay rights. But in a recent campaign stop, he clearly demonstrated how he has co-opted the right wing’s boilerplate talking points on marriage.

Romney said he opposes gay marriage, “not out of a sense of discrimination against people who are gay, but instead out of a very deep-held belief that the ideal setting for raising a child is where there’s a mother and a father…”

Condoleezza Rice

The Secretary of State was blamed for the departure of Michael Guest, the openly gay ambassador to Romania, who was appointed by President Bush.

At a going-away party in December, Guest didn’t pull any punches.

“For the past three years, I’ve urged the Secretary and her senior management team to redress policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian employees,” Guest said. “Absolutely nothing has resulted from this.”

He added, “I want to make clear that this is not about gay rights. Rather, it’s about the safety and effectiveness of our communities abroad, of the people who represent America.”

Rice’s spokesperson responded, “These are complex issues.”