By David Webb – The Rare Reporter After months of ignoring it, sticker shock at the gas pump has finally registered in my consciousness. That moment of enlightenment has led me to do a little research about economics. I now know that I’ve been acting exactly how the experts predict the average consumer will when faced with an unprecedented personal experience. It all started when I filled up my gas tank at a local service station the other day, and the tab came to over $60 for just a few drops more than 15 gallons. It occurred to me as I drove off that using a credit card at self-service pumps could lead someone to be blindsided in a big way when the monthly bills arrive.
I drive a modest four-cylinder sedan so I don’t even want to consider what people who drive big gas guzzlers are paying to fill up, and the shock that could be in store for them at the end of the month. To put things in perspective, I started driving when I was 14 and at that time – I’m talking about nearly a half-century ago — gas cost about 33 cents per gallon. If I’m figuring correctly, I think that’s about a 1200 percent increase in my lifetime of driving. Admittedly, talking about price increases that have occurred over a fifty-year period might not seem so radical, but just a little over a decade ago gas cost less than $2 per gallon. It cost me less than $30 to fill up a similar car’s gas tank back then. If it were only gas that had increased in price, it might not seem like such a big deal. But everything that we require to go about our daily lives, such as groceries and clothes, has increased just as dramatically. Even the price of beer, which one needs in order to cope with the stress of all the other high prices, has skyrocketed.
We’ve all been warned for a long time by people who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s that hard times could be coming, but most of us never took those predictions seriously. After my gas pump experience the other day my research revealed that my delayed awareness of the seriousness of the situation is not abnormal. In fact, it is a condition that is known as “normalcy bias.” Basically what that means is that if a person or group of people have never experienced a type of disaster or other traumatic experience, they tend to discount the possibility of it ever occurring. I assume that’s why — despite the repeated warnings that prices for gas and everything else that depends on energy for its production and distribution would be going through the ceiling – that so many of us have ignored the threat. It’s understandable that childless LGBT people, who often have had more discretionary income at their disposal, might be doubly blindsided by such circumstances. It’s clearer to me today than it was a week ago that all of us could be on the brink of making some pretty severe changes in our lifestyle to cope with the economic hardships that appear to be on the horizon. Considering the numbers of people who are unemployed, surviving on food stamps or even homeless, there’s a real crisis out there that most of us just don’t fully comprehend. What’s really scary is that all of the states and local governments are bankrupt and are quickly becoming unable to help support people who are in trouble. The federal government is in the same shape, and the dollar is losing its value quickly. An even scarier scenario is that many people live beyond their means and amass big debts that will crush them should they become unemployed or lose a paycheck for any other reason. Again, someone who has never lost a job or been unable to find one may not realize that it could indeed happen to them as well, according to the “normalcy bias” theory. One of the examples of “normalcy bias” afflicting a whole group of people reportedly occurred in Germany in the 1930s when Jewish people who had lived in the country for generations failed to realize the dangers they faced from Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party. These intelligent, affluent, accomplished and sophisticated people simply were unable to comprehend what was about to happen to them. Because LGBT people who lived openly in Germany at the time suffered the same fate from the oppressors, a parallel might be drawn between then and now as regards conservative extremists’ plans for our future. During tough economic times, there is always a search for scapegoats on which to blame problems. Some things are out of our direct individual control as regards what could happen to the economy, but there is something that everyone probably needs to do in troubling times. I now remember financial experts on talk shows recently advising people to get out of debt, stay out of debt, start foregoing some luxuries, build a strong cash reserve to take care of basic needs and fill pantries with nonperishable foods.
Until my moment of awareness at the gas pump the other day, I might have considered such a plan as a little alarmist because like most people I know I’ve never gone without anything. But that could change. Now, it just seems like good common sense. David Webb is a veteran journalist who has covered LGBT issues for the mainstream and alternative press for three decades. E-mail him at davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com.]]>

By David Webb – The Rare Reporter During every election cycle at some point I start to wonder why anyone would even want to run for elected office in light of the nastiness of politics. It’s easy to see why older LGBT people would be attracted to the idea of public service because it provides an opportunity to put professional skills to use for the public good while keeping busy in retirement. We also know how important it is for the advancement of LGBT rights to have openly gay people serving on government bodies. It sounds like a perfect idea for the professional who is retired or nearing retirement to round out a career, but be forewarned of the risks. Any candidate announcing a political campaign opens themselves up to the most invasive intrusion into their personal and professional lives possible. The truth is that practically everyone has something in their lives that they would just as soon not become public knowledge, and that might well happen. No matter how long ago something happened and regardless of whether it went unnoticed at the time, someone will either remember it or discover it when the spotlight focuses on a political candidate. And misdemeanor convictions suddenly become a very big deal.
A lesbian Dallas City Council candidate recently learned that when she went before The Dallas Morning News editorial board and found herself under fire over a misdemeanor criminal record. The editorial board had obviously done its homework by researching the candidate’s criminal record. It’s really easy to do because the Dallas County District Clerk’s Web site and many other government entities across the country offer free public access to all criminal and civil records. And for a small fee anyone can access commercial Web sites that offer the same information about anyone living anywhere. On her own, the candidate owned up to pleading guilty in 2007 to misdemeanor theft in connection with her former job as executive director of a nonprofit local public improvement district. The candidate said an audit of her expense reimbursements turned up irregularities. The reimbursements were for cash payments she made for contract labor and supplies for maintenance jobs such as painting and minor repairs in connection with public improvements, she noted. The audit reportedly revealed an absence of substantiating receipts. Originally, she wanted to go to trial and fight the charge, said the candidate, who was fired from her job in 2005 over the discrepancy, but after two years she was broke and unable to proceed. It didn’t seem like such a big deal to plead guilty to misdemeanor theft to end the case, she said. Her penalty was a $1,000 fine and a probated 180-day sentence. What the candidate apparently didn’t realize was that the editorial board would also uncover an almost two-decade-old DWI conviction and a bad check for $20 she wrote almost a decade ago in a grocery store. The candidate said she didn’t mention the DWI because it had occurred so long ago, and she didn’t even think about the bad check that she made good for in 2009 when she learned about it from the District Attorney’s collection division. The Dallas Morning News editorial board however did think it was a big deal, and in an editorial they declined to endorse the candidate over it while noting she seemed capable and had some good ideas. At the same time, it declined to endorse the incumbent or a third candidate in the race, without saying anything good about them. Having known the lesbian candidate as a strong neighborhood leader for more than a decade, I believed her explanation about the theft charge. As regards the DWI and the bad check charges, they’re as common as rodents and insects in all parts of the country. Last weekend, the lesbian candidate wound up losing the race and coming in third place. It’s hard to know how much the revelation of the misdemeanor criminal record had to do with her losing, but it obviously didn’t help. Of course, the message here is for anyone considering a run for political office to make sure and check their criminal record before they step into the spotlight. There’s no telling who or what might be waiting to jump on stage with you. David Webb is a veteran journalist who has covered LGBT issues for the mainstream and alternative media for three decades. E-mail him at davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com.]]>

David Webb – The Rare Reporter Despite its stellar, well-known rise to political prominence in many cities across the country, local LGBT communities might find themselves hard-pressed to document their glory days in coming years. We apparently are forgetting our history as fast as we live each new day. So many people have either died, moved away from the cities of their youth or both that the number of people who remember what happened in their locales after the birth of the gay rights movement in June 1969 are dwindling daily. It’s not unusual for people not to be able to remember local LGBT political gains in cities nationwide because definitive histories have not been written about our local cultures. It’s not unusual for arguments to break out about what gay bars existed when and where because there is so little record of their existence. If we don’t remember where we’ve been and what we’ve done, are we prepared for where we need to go in the future? Many LGBT communities are fortunate to have long-running publications that have chronicled the events of several decades, but most lack those resources. Some LGBT people have amassed personal collections of gay magazines, newspapers and other literature dating back to World War II before most people in the community were born. But I’m only aware of a few cities where such collections have been saved for scholarly use. When old timers in the LGBT community talk about what they witnessed decades ago, it provides a fascinating glimpse into what life was like for LGBT people struggling in an oppressive time that most of us have never experienced. Research of newspaper archives reveals that in the 1950s and 1960s law enforcement agencies aggressively pursed gay people in their homes during private parties. People were literally arrested for same-sex dancing in those days. PBS has produced a fascinating 90-minute documentary, “Stonewall Uprising,” that focuses on LGBT life in New York City in the 1960s and what led up to the pivotal moment in 1969 when gay men, lesbians and drag queens decided to revolt against tyranny. Likewise, there have been show business histories written about the persecution of LGBT people in Hollywood in the 1950s, but what happened in most other cities is in danger of being lost forever. LGBT communities thrived in some manner in every city of any size, and it needs to be documented. We can’t afford to forget that our lives today are literally blessed in comparison to what the people before us experienced. We can’t ever let politicians forget that our lives matter, and that we will never go back to the old days of subjugation. And don’t ever forget that there are still many people around who would like to see our community dissolved and powerless. Pastors of churches that are members of the powerful Southern Baptist Convention are proponents of a movement to discredit and render us politically powerless. That’s why it is important to document our history, to show young people in our community what we accomplished and to show our detractors that we’ve fought many battles in the past and that we will do it again if necessary. Perhaps, it could be a collaborative effort with many writers who lived through the times reflecting on what happened. We’ve certainly got the talent and the resources in every city to document our history. The idea has been tossed around before, but apparently nothing has ever came of it. Isn’t it time that we did it? David Webb is a veteran journalist who has covered LGBT issues for the mainstream and alternative media for three decades. E-mail him at davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com. ]]>