Vote for the dyke

Where the heck are lesbians in public life? The very out Alison Brewer is the first candidate to declare an interest in the leadership of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party -- the vote's scheduled for September.

And good for her -- I guess. It'll be a long time before we see an out lesbian running for the leadership of a viable party. I'm not being mean, just practical: The N.B. N.D.P. has a single elected member in the provincial legislature. It hasn't a hope in hell of making it to government anytime soon. Not that there's anything wrong with grabbing a job that allows you to present alternatives and get people thinking. That's a worthwhile endeavour.

Interestingly, the lone media story I managed to find doesn't even mention Brewer's gay and lesbian rights track record. There are many possible reasons for this, but it's certainly true that reporters are notoriously afraid of mentioning homo sexual orientation. It's one of the problems with squishy liberals: it might be private, you know. So they often don't ask at all, out of fear that it's an inappropriate question.

The CBC screed reads: "Brewer is best known as an advocate for freedom of choice on the abortion issue. She's the former director of the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton."

As far as I know, there's only a single out dyke in office in the whole country. British Columbia New Democrat MP Libby Davies came out during a particularly impassioned House of Commons debate on the legitimacy of same-sex relationships -- but that's it. In comparison, there are at least three out gay men federally, and a handful of male politicians across the country at the provincial and municipal levels. But no out lesbians...? Is it really possible to do it all from the outside, looking in?