Patrick Flaherty
The up-and-coming politician and activist on continuing Milk's fight for representation.
Patrick Flaherty
Patrick Flaherty
Alderman Candidate, Milwaukee Common Council
Democrat
When did you first learn about the life (and death) of Harvey Milk? What did he mean to you then? How old were you, etc?
My first involvement in LGBT politics was with ACT UP in the early 1990s. I read Randy Shilts' "And the Band Played On" about the massive failures of the US government in the AIDS crisis, and a fellow activist recommended another Shilts book, "The Mayor of Castro Street," about Harvey Milk. I was about 21 or 22, and I remember the emotion of the "White Night" riot scene of the documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" -- it really captured the same rage in '78 that people were feeling in 90 or 91 about the AIDS crisis. I remember the same scene distinctly spooking my button-downed boyfriend at the time.
Was Harvey Milk an inspiration to you when you ran for public office? What is it that inspired you about him?
Up until 1995, my primary way of effecting change was to get arrested. I think direct action accomplished a lot, including very practical things in Wisconsin like better dental care and better prison conditions for people with HIV, but a lot of it felt self-indulgent and of course ultimately the anger of the movement consumed itself. It was working for a month on my first electoral campaign, fighting Maine's proposed ban on civil rights protections for gays on a leave from my day job in 1995 that I came to appreciate the power of the ballot box to change widespread public opinion. Suddenly it wasn't enough to just be right, or outraged: you had to convince a majority of your fellow citizens that your ideas were the right ones. While I never think the majority should get to vote on the rights of minorities, whether its marriage or affirmative action or whatever, I do think the LGBT community has benefited from the discipline required by these referenda... that we have to emerge from our safe spaces and engage the general public with a common vocabulary. It was great that LGBT people and ideas of equality found refuge in universities or select big city neighborhoods, but we've paid a price in that our movement developed a sort of "in-speak" that didn't translate particularly well in the outside world. While we've been busy adding letters to the LGBT nomenclature, we've not had enough dialogue with communities of color, working class white people, people of faith. I knocked on thousands of doors during the three year run up to Wisconsin's marriage amendment, and a lot of the people I met have a hard time just saying the "g" word, though they often tried hard to identify with the challenges we faced. Harvey Milk recognized all this back in the 1970s -- when he ran for office, he didn't just talk about gay issues, but about mundane things we all care about, like making sure that people pick up after their dogs.
What specific challenges did you face running (or serving) because of your own sexual orientation?
I ran in a very gay-supportive area, where 76% voted against our gay marriage ban in 2006. I received heart-warming support from LGBT volunteers and donors, as well as from straight allies who valued the work I'd done on behalf of the LGBT community. But that doesn't mean my sexual orientation and work history didn't require a delicate calculus. I knew both intellectually and experientially from listening to hundreds of voters at their doors that the top issues in the district were compelling issues like development, crime and the environment. These were issues I wanted to tackle, but when I talked to voters about these issues, my detractors claimed I was running away from the gay issue. We ran the most out campaign in the history of Wisconsin: my partner was included in all my ads and most of my mailings. But I talked about the main issues facing the city and framed my accomplishments in ways that I thought spoke directly to what kind of alderman I would be. An internet and whisper campaign, led by a lesbian candidate who didn't make it out of the primary who harbored disappointment that she didn't receive more organized LGBT support, undercut me. They called me a closeted gay man, outed me to a supporter in public housing who was also a Pentecostal minister, lied about my support for domestic partner benefits for Milwaukee teachers (I'd organized 100 equal rights supporters, personally testified on camera, while they claimed I ducked an opportunity to speak), culminating in angry middle-aged white men standing outside of a polling place on Election Day telling bystanders I was a closeted gay man. I don't think this cost me the race -- voters definitely knew I was gay from conversations at the doors -- but it was certainly the most personally hurtful, and its a balance that nongay candidates never have to strike. Rather, I think my success in endorsements and fundraising undercut my ultimate outsider credentials in a year where clearly the American electorate was seeking change. I was so afraid that my history as an out gay progressive would make voters dismiss me as fringe, and in the end I was deemed part of the establishment!
What has changed the most for a lesbian/gay politician since the days of Harvey Milk?
There are so many institutional resources for LGBT politicians, though the missionary intensity of LGBT activists has declined as being gay has become less of a big deal.
Patrick Flaherty, 39, is a long time community activist in Wisconsin. After a career as a nonprofit leader and community organizer working for AIDS and LGBT organizations, he ran for alderman in Spring 2008 for an open seat on the Milwaukee Common Council, a full-time body of 15 elected representatives who set the city's billion dollar budget and public policy. Flaherty would have been the first openly-gay council member and one of the first non-incumbent LGBT officials in Southeast Wisconsin. His leadership in both gay (leading passage of domestic partnership measures in Milwaukee, co-founding Wisconsin's $5million campaign against its 2006 marriage ban, securing state funding for LGBT centers) and non-gay (board leader on organizations like Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Progressive Milwaukee) issues earned him the support of a widespread coalition but while he came out on top in a high-turnout eight-candidate February primary that included the competitive Democratic Presidential race, he lost to his opponent by just 71 votes in the general election, when 40% less voted.
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The Debt
The Broken Tower
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