By Mehgan Sellers
In the Houston neighborhood of Montrose, a gay and lesbian-friendly place that locals call "the gayborhood," I met Rebekah Lee. She walked up to me, put her hand on my shoulder, and asked if I was there to cover the canvassing event. What I didn't know is that she was also slapping a "GLBT-for-Obama" sticker on my back -- which came as a surprise to me later.
But that was nothing compared to what came next.
Lee wasn't always an Obama supporter; in fact, she didn't always identify with the Democratic Party. From 1989 to 1993, Lee served as the 49th District of Montana's representative to the state legislature.
Back then her name was Tom, and he was a Republican. Not just any Republican, Lee told me, but one who was "a raging homophobe".
"It's really hard for me to imagine that I was ever that way," Lee said, her voice breaking and tears swelling in her eyes, "God it's really hard, it was so wrong and so hurtful."
While in office, Tom Lee was approached by human rights activist and lobbyist Christine Kaufmann. Kaufmann, now a state senator in Montana, asked Lee to support a bill that would extend equal rights to include sexual orientation.
"She said I'd really like to have your support," remembered Lee, "but I said I'm sorry Christine I just can't do it."
But wait, there's more: "Not only did I turn her down," Lee added, "but I sponsored the amendment that would outlaw anything gay and lesbian in the state of Montana."
A year ago, after her transformation to Rebekah, Lee met with Kaufmann and apologized for not supporting the legislation at the time.
"She emailed me using the name Tom," said Kaufmann when I called her at her Montana home. "We arranged to meet at a local restaurant. She appeared and I think kind of enjoyed the surprise."
"I met with Christine and the first thing that she lies down on the table is the copy of the Helena Independent Record," remembered Lee. "And it was there, Rep. Tom Lee sponsors amendment...I apologized to her for ever doing that."
Kaufmann offered her thoughts on the conversation with Lee.
"It's disheartening to me that people who are struggling with any issue around identity wouldn't be open and free to explore these issues, that they wouldn't be open to supporting equality," she said. "It's just a crime to society."
For Lee it was a difficult personal journey.
"I had to cross all of these bridges within myself," she said, "because these were all part of who I had grown to be, the way I was raised and the cultural values put into me."
Kaufmann said that the Tom Lee she petitioned to back in 1991 was extremely conservative. "He was just so locked in," she said.
"I was like a raging homophobe at that time in my life. When I started to transition, everything changed. It's just like walking out of a dark closet with light and I was just like 'Wow, okay yeah I get it'," she said.
Lee traveled from Bellingham, WA, to Texas as a volunteer for the Obama campaign in advance of the March 4 primary.
"I wasn't sure this was the right place for me to come help out, with Texas being Texas," she told me. However after a phone call from a friend, Lee decided to fly down and join the effort.
As a volunteer, Lee helped get out the vote through phone banking and putting canvas packets together.
She recently returned to the Pacific Northwest from the Virgin Islands, and in the Washington caucuses on February 9 was elected a delegate to the county convention.
"I'm going to try to be a GLBT delegate as far as I can go up in the state of Washington," she said.
Lee has donated a lot of volunteer time to the Democratic Party both up in Washington and in Texas. She said she'll be returning to Bellingham on Thursday, but added with a grin "that is unless Barack gets me a cabinet position of course."
Rebekah Lee sounds like someone I would like to know.
She certainly sounds like she is kinder and more thoughtful and committed than many of the people I know.
I get the sense that the "T" of GLBT is possibly least understood by outsiders. I hope this essay gets lots of attention and to begin getting it some, I'm sending email links to my family and friends.
And congrats to you, Rebekah! You're an asset to Barak Obama's campaign!
There's no shortage of hurtfull ideological claptrap in either party...just look at what the democrats are accusing each other of being right now! Rabbid dogs and self-jmmolating idealogues are always welcome in either party as long as they're primarily targetting one's political opponents, but rest assured, one day the dog with the muzzle will one day bite the owner's children.
Obama doesn't care about GLBT issues, he only cares about their votes.
The state still has a long way to go, though....
I believe in a secular gov that accepts diversity and is fair and supportive to all of its citizens regardless of the individual agendas of any special interest. Given the last seven years of GOP "Compassionate Conservatism" I think we can afford to try something more friendly to our citizens.
the oppression inflicted on anyone deemed "different" than the dominant culture(in our case straight white Wasp males) is a universal human trait that I hope someday will vanish from all societies. How many people do we lose that would be contributors to so many areas of society because they are struggling with identity and can't figure out where they fit and because of fear of the ugliness that will most likely haunt them.
Throughout history there are stories of transgendered individuals, from royalty to soldiers to "cowboys" and pioneers. From the stories I have read it seems to often be women living as men, though not always.
I think we have moved forward so much since the 50's and 60's when people started coming out, few at that time except in "gay neighborhoods" where there was a comfort level of sorts.
But we still have far to go on all the phobia's and ism's that are an anathema to a civilized society.
Was it Montana that Mathew Shepard was essentially crucified in?
I know Rebekah a little from around my hometown. She has been, by far, one of the most loyal and hard working Whatcom County Democrats for a long time. Reading this story explains why she's so smart about politics. She has been very brave and out. She is a very sincere person. When the database needed building, guess who put in the hours? Armchair critics can type their little annon blogger fingers off, but I suggest they give her the benefit of the doubt, and look to their own pasts for things to pick on.
Rebekah Rocks.
Mark Jay Flanders
Bellingham, Wa
Proud of you Rebekah, glad to see you are back in Bellingham.
XOX Susanne
Be an adult voter, not a media-hystericized voter who is prey to republican manipulators
who want to keep screwing middle-income Americans every-which-way.
Vote for competence.
Next time, vote for competence.
Vote H.Clinton for a change. Republicans intend to wipe the floor with Obama, sad but true.
I am finding, truthfully, that the pro-HRC posters are including fewer and fewer actual arguments and points -- just cheerleading.
This story needs to be told and told often. The point MUST be made that the most homophobic lawmakers are the ones most likely to be not only gay but also closeted perverts (sex with kids, drug induced S&M sessions with prostitutes, bathroom/public park sex addicts, etc),
If Lee hasn't told this story to the people of Montana then her words are empty. She has a lifetime of making up to do.
Why did saying sorry "cut it" before, but not anymore?
What's the alternative? Not everyone was born perfect, some people make mistakes. Should they adopt the Bush approach and keep charging ahead ignoring the mistake, or apologize and try to make amends?
this agenda to amend the viability of an apology...
could it be an unconscious effort to make it non-essential for Hillary to apologize for the most doofus vote of our generation?
It's just a thought.