Gay Activist Arline Isaacson Speaks OUT

In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson talks with Arline Isaacson, Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, about the recent upset in the Massachusetts senate race and how our LGBT community should become proactive in the 2010 midterm elections. When asked what she thought went wrong in Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s defeat by State Senator Scott Brown, Isaacson stated, “I think that there is no one thing that went wrong…There were mistakes even made in the messaging. Many of us in Massachusetts think there was an over reliance from nationals like the DNC on the heath care bill that stirred people up who were already against Obama’s health care bill. On the other hand there were a lot of people in Massachusetts that thought the health care bill was not strong enough to begin with, so that necessarily wasn’t the right button to push. There were a lot of people who felt that complacency was the biggest problem here. And this one, many people are at fault. Yes, the Coakley campaign staff were complacent in not taking the race seriously enough and assuming she was going to win. But in fairness to them, so did everyone else. So did the National Democratic Party. So did the National Republic Party and the state committee parties as well. Republican and Democrats, many of the people here, most assumed she was going to walk into the seat. There’s a lot of blame that can be spread amongst a lot of people, but there’s no one reason that it went down into defeat. However, complacency is absolutely a theme from which our LGBT community can learn a very important lesson.”

Through her lobbying expertise over the last 20 years, Arline Isaacson has been instrumental in the passage of LGBT rights in Massachusetts and is one of the architects of gay marriage in this country. In this interview she provides valuable insights and strategies into successful legislative initiatives.
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