Petrelis Files

WH Gay Liaison Bond Speaks on Kids & HIV;
Silence on Suicides

(Brian Bond and Leslye M. Huff, of the National Black Justice Coalition; 09/16/10. Credit: NBJC.)

Let me repeat myself: I'm over gay liaisons. Can any self-respecting homosexual really believe we gained any leverage stopping DOMA or DADT, because of Richard Socarides when he served President Clinton as a buffer between gay anger and the administration? Besides Clinton, only Socarides benefited from his liaison tenure.

We now have the very silent Brian Bond, formerly of Gay Inc's org dedicated to electing Democrats who happen to be gay, the Victory Fund, doing duty for Obama and nothing much for our good. He has shamefully stood silent this week as a spike in gay and questioning teen suicides alarmed our community.

Are we gays the only ones who let a good crisis go to waste?

Care to wager that once Bond leaves the White House he'll confess how torn up he was with his and his boss' lack of words over the bullying deaths this week, but for the good of his career, er, community and the country, he continued to serve the Less-Than-Fierce-Advocate-in-Chief?

I nudged Bond to send me a comment about the suicides, and in response, gay press officer Shin Inouye wrote "FYI" in his forward of Education Secretary Duncan's late Friday statement. Three whole letters, and not even from the liaison. Gee, Brian, you sure don't believe in breaking out in sweat for your community, do you?

Let me cut him a bit of slack because Bond this week wrote about the importance of talking to youths about AIDS, and I'm all for that. This excerpt appeared on the WH Office of National AIDS Policy blog on Monday, September 27:

I am worried about the kids out there and the generation that hasn’t seen the devastating impact of this epidemic the way my generation has. Now more than ever we need to be talking about HIV/AIDS. [...]

I feel like we all have a responsibility to do this for the kids out there, and also in the memory of those who have fought this fight before us.

Genuine gay leadership would have Bond making similar remarks and the kids and the crucial reasons we need to reach them about bullying and suicide, after such a harrowing week for gay kids and the larger community. But what we get loud and clear, from Bond and Kevin Jennings, other Obama appointees, Democratic Party gay mayors in Houston and Providence, where two of the suicides happened, is silence silence silence.

I will not rest in peace while Gay Inc and Democratic Party homosexuals stay mute. How many more have to die before Bond and crew speak up?