8
HERZENBERG WINS SEAT
On November 3, 1987, 3,575
Chapel Hill voters elected this
state's first openly gay politi
cian. Joe Herzenberg, a 46-year-
old historian and former catfish
rancher, who lost three previous
bids for a seat on the town
council, finally won, receiving
more votes than any other white
male candidate in the town's
history.
Many of Herzenberg's supporters
were surprised to learn they had
elected a phenomenon in sexual
politics. At the end of two
decades of what essayist Frank Rich
calls the "homosexualization of
America," a period during which
homoerotic aesthetics, homosexual
social themes and gay health issues
have passed into popular culture
and public consciousness, it is
easy to forget that from sea to
shining sea there are only 30 to 40
uncloseted gay electees at any
level of government. Indeed, it is
a grim joke among gay civil rights
workers that the number of gay
congressmen has recently doubled:
there are now two. Harvey Milk,
elected to San Francisco's Board of
Supervisors and assassinated a year
later, was the nation's first
avowedly gay official--a mere nine
years ago.
Even among this small fraternity
of successful gay politicians,
council member-elect Herzenberg is
a rarity, perhaps unique. For
while lesbian & gay candidates in
Key West, San Francisco, Boston,
St. Paul and West Hollywood have
been elected by predominantly
lesbian/gay constituencies from gay
ghettos, Herzenberg won in an at-
large election in a small and
comparatively diverse Southern
town.
Although gay supporters provided
the driving energy of the campaign,
and the politicization of lesbians
& gay men gave Herzenberg the
decisive edge, he could not have
relied exclusively on the gay bloc
in a campaign with no identifiable
gay issues. It was a combination
of his answers to town growth
management questions, a strategy of
door-to-door personal contact with
a broad base of liberal voters, and
galvanized gay power that got
Herzenberg elected.
It was also a matter of timing.
During Herzenber's first two
campaigns, many of the main
political issues in Chapel Hill
were budgetary rather than devel
opment arguments, and Herzenberg
was perceived as a radical spend
thrift. His ideas haven't changed,
he says, but the voters and the
political emphasis have.
The timing was right for
Herzenberg to capitalize on the
lesbian/gay vote as well. The
success of the two-year-old Gay
Pride March, the re-election in
Durham of liberal mayor Wib Gulley,
and the evolution of Raleigh's pro
gay city council have served to
solidify the previously ephemeral
gay political organization in the
Triangle area. Perhaps most
importantly, the National March on
Washington for Lesbian and Gay
Rights had a tremendous impact on
Herzenberg's campaign.
The town Sen. Jesse Helms once
suggested be fenced in and
advertised as the North Carolina
state zoo, the first white Southern
town to elect a black mayor, has
earned for itself yet another
important distinction as a liberal
mecca. But beyond its historic and
symbolic significance, what does
Herzenberg's victory mean? What
will it mean to have a gay member
of the town council?
In lighter moments, Herzenberg
has toyed with the idea of insti
tuting "gay Friday," a weekly dose
of mind expansion in which straight
residents of Chapel Hill would be
required to become gay for a day.
He has also considered the fecund
prospect of a gay men's baton
twirling troupe for town parades.
But in general he concedes that
there is little specifically gay
legislation to be acted on or
created. For the most part, Herz
enberg sees his election as a gay
candidate in terms of social
therapy.
"My emphasis on open government
--campaign financial reporting,
disclosure of property holdings,
clean, open processes of govern
ment—that is sort of metaphorical,
as far as I'm concerned, for being
open about sexuality," says
Herzenberg. "It's one thing that
gay liberation has to offer to the
society as a whole: being honest
about things, not hiding things."
Besides the social and psycho
logical value for lesbians & gay
men themselves, Herzenberg believes
that gay political activity has an
invigorating effect on democracy.
While it's clear that many main
stream Americans have become
disillusioned about the possi
bilities of electoral politics,
gays, like immigrants and other
marginal groups, are becoming more
and more excited about those
possibilities. It may be that such
excitement is infectious, and
lavender patriots such as Joe
Herzenberg will help revitalize
traditional American political
values. This has certainly been
the case during the past few weeks
in Chapel Hill.
- SEAN ROWE