THE FIGHT SOCAL'S LGBTQ MONTHLY MAGAZINE MAY 2016
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<strong>THE</strong>ROSTOWREPORT<br />
PARTY LIKE<br />
IT’S 1967<br />
Have any of you readers<br />
of <strong>THE</strong> <strong>FIGHT</strong> registered as<br />
members of the American<br />
Independent Party in<br />
California? Apparently up to<br />
75 percent of Party members<br />
checked the box for the archconservatives<br />
by mistake,<br />
thinking they were signing<br />
up to be “independents.”<br />
Um, no. The AIP is a legacy<br />
from the days of segregationist<br />
George Wallace, and its<br />
members are only allowed to<br />
vote in the AIP primary. Actual<br />
independent voters, who can<br />
vote in the Democratic primary<br />
if they like, are the people who<br />
checked “no affiliation.” I have<br />
some sympathy for the accidental<br />
registrants, but not that<br />
much. If you truly want to be<br />
an “independent” voter, than<br />
you do not pick a party. That’s<br />
the whole point, right?<br />
TAKE THAT NORTH<br />
CAROLINA!<br />
Moving on, it looks as if<br />
our backlash against North<br />
Carolina is gaining strength,<br />
and could have an impact on<br />
the state election this fall,<br />
when Governor Pat McCrory<br />
faces the pro-gay Attorney<br />
General Roy Cooper. Cooper<br />
was lagging a bit, but recent<br />
polls show he is now running<br />
slightly ahead of McCrory,<br />
who has spent the last month<br />
sputtering in shocked dismay<br />
about the unfair overreaction<br />
to HB2, his state’s innocent<br />
common sense anti-GLBT law.<br />
As of April 25, the North<br />
Carolina legislature is back in<br />
a so called “short session”<br />
for an indefinite amount of<br />
time, but it doesn’t look as<br />
if recalcitrant lawmakers are<br />
in any hurry to roll back HB2.<br />
This despite almost universal<br />
outrage, the cancellation of<br />
numerous concerts, conventions<br />
and events, the rollback<br />
of corporate investments, and<br />
even the possible withdrawal<br />
JULHAS<br />
MANNAN<br />
of next year’s NBA championship.<br />
The other day, the U.K.<br />
Foreign Office even issued<br />
a notification, warning LGBT<br />
tourists of potential problems<br />
if they visit North Carolina<br />
or Mississippi. (Mississippi<br />
followed North Carolina with a<br />
“religious freedom” law that<br />
gives a green light to many<br />
forms of anti-gay bias.)<br />
Meanwhile, as negative<br />
publicity pervades the Tobacco<br />
>> BY ANN ROSTOW