One Utah

It has been interesting to watch both candidates for Mayor of Salt Lake City working so hard to get the LGBT vote. One of the candidates, Ralph Becker, has a voting record that matches his campaign rhetoric. Over the past 11 years, Ralph has supported our community. The same can not be said about Dave Buhler.

Dave Buhler understands that to become mayor in our city one must court the LGBT vote. And rightly so. Recent studies show that queer voters have the highest turn out of any other voting demographic; as many as 90% of eligible gay voters actually vote. That would explain why any savvy politician understands that he/she can not become Mayor of our city without the LGBT vote.

Mr. Buhler should know we are not so easily fooled. Looking at his voting record it is easy to see through his bluster. Dave Buhler voted against Gay Marriage. He voted to deny recognition of marriages that would be prohibited in Utah, even if validly performed in other states. He also voted to prohibit gay/lesbian clubs in schools. This vote prohibited school teachers from supporting supposed “illegal conduct”. It was a guise specifically designed to target gay and lesbian students in Utah.

Ralph Becker’s voting record consistently supports the LGBT community. Ralph supported hate crime legislation from its first introduction 12 years ago to its passage last year. He successfully used his position as House Minority Leader to push for funding HIV/AIDS medication. He has been a tireless and effective voice in all our battles: he was against Amendment 3, for Gay Straight Alliance clubs in Utah schools, and the list goes on and on.

If elected mayor, Ralph plans to take the excellent work Rocky has done to support the LGBT community one step further. He plans to introduce a Universal Human Rights Initiatives for Salt Lake City. Among other things this comprehensive initiative would:

• Establish a city registry for domestic partnerships to streamline the process for businesses to offer benefits to domestic partners.
•  Require the extension of benefits equally to registered domestic partners by companies that contract with the City and already provide benefits to employees’ spouses.
• Change the City’s retirement policy to allow an employee to name a domestic partner as a beneficiary.

Mr. Buhler has also been running on a platform of mending the rift between the Mayor’s office and the State Legislature. As a Senator, he was instrumental in perpetuating that rift. When Salt Lake City chose to limit undesirable billboard advertising, Senator Buhler sponsored a bill that would limit cities’ abilities to control unsightly billboards. While this bill ultimately failed, a substitution bill passed with Buhler’s support.

This is an example of Buhler bowing to the needs of special interest groups who do not always have the good of the community at heart. Mr. Buhler’s campaign received nearly the maximum donation allowed by law from Reagan Outdoor, one of Utah’s leading billboard businesses. Maybe that’s what he means when he says he is “a reasonable guy”.

We, in the LGBT community, are flattered by the attention we are receiving from both candidates. It is a great milestone by which we can measure our achievements as a community. Now we must follow through. and all get out and vote for the man who has a solid record of supporting the LGBT community; Ralph Becker.

Our position is not extreme. We support fairness and equality for everyone.

Please support all fair-minded Democrats on November 6th. Please, VOTE!

Nikki Boyer
Chair, Utah Stonewall Democrats
 nikkiboyer at msn.com

This entry was posted Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 8:17 am and is filed under Ralph Becker, SLC Politics, Utah Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.