Berkeley Leonard
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 60-69 |
| Home | San Francisco, CA |
| Demographic | white, gay, retired public defender |
| Lean | Lean Democrat |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Castro Marty |
| Successor | Woodstock Allen |
Leonard is a retired public defender in San Francisco who has been openly gay since the Nixon years and has spent thirty years with the same partner. He opposes the war and has fought for a marriage that the courts grant and then revoke.
Who they stand for
The gay left of the coastal cities is the most politically engaged group in this line of personas, because the AIDS epidemic makes it so. The generation that buried its friends in the 1980s learns that the state will let people die, and it never stops organising. In this decade its central fight is marriage. San Francisco issues marriage licences in February 2004, the state supreme court voids them in August of that year, the same court legalises same-sex marriage in May 2008, and Proposition 8 bans it again in November 2008. Barack Obama does not publicly endorse same-sex marriage until 2012. The group's other causes come from the Bush years, including the February 2003 marches against the Iraq war, and the hundreds of city resolutions passed against the Patriot Act, Guantánamo Bay, wiretapping and torture. Part of this left votes for Ralph Nader in 2000 and is blamed for losing Florida ever afterwards.
His predecessor, Marty, fights for his friends' lives during the AIDS epidemic. Leonard fights for his own right to marry. His successor, Allen, has won that right and now fights for his Medicare with the same intensity, even though the stakes are lower.
Playing to them
Leonard responds well to marriage equality, single-payer health care, ending the war, closing Guantánamo Bay, gun control and abolishing the death penalty. He is unwinnable for a Republican, and a Democrat does not hold his support by default either. He treats civil unions, offered as a compromise, as cowardice, and a president who courts evangelical voters or defends the Defense of Marriage Act in court loses his support however liberal the rest of that president's record is.
He does not forgive torture, warrantless surveillance, an execution, or a president who flatters the white South. He speaks about Republican voters with a contempt that makes him difficult company, and a president who echoes his tone about the red states loses the support of Dayton Tammy, Security Mom Donna and NASCAR Doug, who recognise themselves in that description. Winning his support on marriage and the war costs the support of Jasper Faye, Megachurch Heather, Chattanooga Travis, Bayou Curtis and Fort Hood Cody. The Patriot Act is the one subject on which he and Flathead Wade agree.
Where they live
The five states where Berkeley Leonard makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- Massachusetts
- Rhode Island
- Washington
- Oregon
- Minnesota
Lineage
Castro Marty → Berkeley Leonard → Woodstock Allen
The gay and New Left activist of the AIDS generation, whose political engagement is total because the epidemic forced it on him. What changes is what he is fighting for. Marty is fighting for his friends' lives. Leonard is fighting for his marriage, which was granted and then revoked by the court. Allen has won the marriage fight and is fighting for his own Medicare and health. The politics do not change. The stakes get smaller, and his tone goes from angry to panicked because he is fighting as hard as before for less.