Supporting Alvarez
We are writing to express our support for Cook County State’s Attorney candidate Anita Alvarez.

Anita is a 21-year veteran of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. She began her career in 1986 and presently serves as third in command of the second largest prosecutor’s office in the nation. In that time, she has handled every type of case from domestic violence to narcotics and public corruption to gang homicides. She has served in a supervisory role for the past 10 years. We have evaluated her background carefully and have gotten to know her personally as well. Each and every step of her career has been noted by achievement, excellence and dedication.

Anita has reached out to the LGBT community and has sought not only our support but our ideas, insight and concerns. Her campaign staff deliberately includes several members of our community and her agenda reflects a sensible approach to law enforcement, crime prevention and inclusive sensitivity for all communities. She is also committed to changing a culture that has long existed within the state’s attorney’s office that seems to support and promote only white heterosexual males to the detriment of other committed employees of more diverse backgrounds. She is proud that since she took a central role in recruitment of new prosecutors three years ago, she has increased minority hiring from 26 percent to 40 percent in the most recent class of new assistant state’s attorneys.

From the time we first met her, she impressed us with her common sense approach and her sincere feeling of camaraderie with the LGBT community and our long struggle for equality and respect. In many ways her personal story mirrors that of many throughout our community. As a woman and as a minority, she was consistently disregarded, ignored, overlooked and was outright discriminated against because she did not fit into the mold of what the establishment considered worthy of inclusion, not only in the law enforcement community but the community at large. She told us a story of when she once walked into a courtroom as the lead prosecutor—and was mistaken for the Spanish interpreter! Anita had to put more effort, longer hours and more tenacity and dedication to penetrate the barrier before her but she did it and did it well.

In this election, she is opposed mostly by career politicians. They are heavy on clout, machine politics and special interests, but devoid of experience representing the victims of crime in Cook County. Some are aldermen, commissioners and lobbyists in the pockets of special interests and backroom politicians. Unlike Anita, many have not held the hands of victims of crime or stood up for people other than their own power base. Anita stands alone, speaking out for justice and victims of crime. She has never turned anyone away because of their skin color, accent, ancestry, creed or sexual orientation. She never will.

In the entire history of this county, voters have never elected anyone but white males as state’s attorney. That strikes us as absurd in light of this county’s demographics. It also strikes us that now, in the same year that America is poised to elect it’s first African American or woman as president, it is also a time for change at the local level. We need someone as state’s attorney who has the experience and qualifications coupled with a history of fighting for recognition, inclusion and equality. She stands firmly with the LGBT community and is the best qualified and experienced candidate in this race. It is our sincere hope that the LGBT community stand with Anita on Feb. 5.

Paula Basta, Amy Bloom, Jeremy Gottschalk, Ray Koenig, Brian Walker, Steven Zick
Chicago

Log Cabin and DADT
In response to several articles written recently about the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy, the Log Cabin Republicans have been unequivocal in their messaging and work against this failed military policy.  Log Cabin has worked tirelessly to help overturn this policy.  We stand vigorously opposed to any Republican presidential candidate who says they can not do anything regarding the DADT policy, including Gov. Huckabee’s recent words stating that he doesn’t think that we “need a president who’s trying to tell the military how to run the military.”  After all, it only took Truman’s signature in 1948 to Executive Order 9981 to ensure that our nation’s military was integrated racially, something fair-minded Americans knew was the right thing to do then as it is now.

LCR sharply criticized former President Clinton and pointed out the facts when he recently tried to orally rewrite the history of DADT, blaming the Pentagon alone for the failed 1993 policy by saying that as soon as it was signed into law, “the anti-gay forces in the military started to use it as a excuse to kick (gay) people out.” “If this was true,” says National LCR President Patrick Sammon, “why didn’t he do anything about it for the seven years he served as president after signing the legislation?”

LCR has also been meeting with three of the current Republican presidential candidates to voice our opinions and concerns on several issues having to do with the LGBT community, including DADT, to much agreement and appreciation from these three candidates. To see some of what LCR has done toward this important work, go to www.logcabin.org. LCR will continue to work with the remaining Republican candidates and the Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to overturn the disastrous DADT policy.

David J. Valkema
Chicago
President, Log Cabin Republicans—Illinois, and National Board Director, Log Cabin Republicans