The pressures on the new kid

The fortunes of the first out lesbian head of a "major" political party took a downturn yesterday. I put "major" in quotation marks because I'm talking about Allison Brewer, leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party. Until yesterday, the NDP had a mere one member elected to the legislature. Today, it has none.

The Tories are in charge of the whole provincial kit-n-kaboodle, and the opposition Liberals picked up the Saint John seat in the Nov. 14 by-election. The Grit won in a landslide, with the Conservative coming in "a distant second." The New Democrat was... who?

For 14 years, the riding had been held by a New Democrat -- Elizabeth Weir, whom Brewer succeeded as party leader a scant few weeks ago.

It's all a bit weird, really. You'd assume the top dog would want a seat right off, and benefit from the PR of being a party leader. But Brewer announced she was more interested in rebuilding the kinda hurtin' party around the province than in being geographically stuck (my words!) in one riding right off. I can see the merit.

Scuttlebutt has it that the Saint John NDP riding people nixed the idea of Brewer jumping in, as they weren't certain the seat was immediately winnable (which would only make Brewer look like a loser). The relatively unknown local candidate they went with was setting the scene -- garnering some name recognition -- for a more serious run in the next general provincial election. And Brewer's power base is in Fredericton anyway, not in Saint John. (In the interest of full disclosure, I don't believe that I've ever met Brewer, but she did contribute a couple of stories when I was editor of Xtra a few years ago.)

But back to the perv stuff. It sometimes seems that the sexual preference of any local celebrity -- such as Brewer -- becomes a flashpoint for both the bigots and the social liberals. And for us homos, too.

Queer (and NDP) activist SarahRose Werner had a letter published in a Saint John daily last month that touched on the complicated politics of identity: "Everyone -- including me -- responded to the headline in Monday's paper as if it had read, 'NDP chooses lesbian as new leader,' instead of, 'NDP chooses lesbian activist as new leader' (Sept. 26, 2005).

"[Letter writer] Alcide LeBlanc wrote that Allison Brewer 'should not have been described according to her sexual orientation since we naturally don't mention the sexual orientation when it comes to heterosexuals.' But the adjective 'lesbian' was used to describe not Ms. Brewer herself but rather the focus of her activism on issues of lesbian rights. The headline could equally accurately have described her as a reproductive choice activist, women's rights activist, labour activist or environmental activist. She could have been described as a disability activist -- even though she herself is not disabled -- because of her advocacy for people with disabilities.

"On the other hand, Elsie Wayne (to pick a random example) could not be described as a "heterosexual activist" because heterosexuals have never been denied human and civil rights on the basis of their sexual orientation. There are no issues of heterosexual rights for anyone of any sexual orientation to be active about.

"Funny how in our eagerness to dive into a discussion of Allison's sexual orientation, we all missed this point."