CANDIDATE HOWARD DEAN CAMPAIGNS AT SIDETRACK

Perhaps for the first time in Chicago history, one of the frontrunner
candidates for the Democratic nomination for president attended an
event at a gay bar.

Howard Dean, who is leading in most polls and is benefitting from a
major fundraising effort fueled by hundreds of thousands of people
giving small donations over the internet (25% from people under 30
years old), spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at Sidetrack, 3349 N.
Halsted, Dec. 4.

Sidetrack co-owner Art Johnston welcomed the audience to "an historic
event in Lakeview, in our city, and as part of the most exciting
grassroots campaign ... [loud applause]. This event tonight, and all
of the related events, are all about the involvement of everyday
citizens, you and me, in a process that will affect all of our lives."

Johnston introduced the Lt. Gov. of Illinois, Pat Quinn, who then
introduced Dean. "Howard Dean really does believe in people, and wants
to give power back to where it really belongs, to everyday citizens
who live from paycheck to paycheck," Quinn said. "Twelve years ago I
was the first statewide official to endorse William Jefferson Clinton
for President. President Clinton put people first, and he served two
good terms and helped a lot of people."

Dean, interrupted frequently by loud applause and screams of support,
spoke on a range of mainstream and gay issues, and even answered a few
questions shouted out from the audience.

Dean was gracious in receiving the roar of support from hundreds
packed into the bar, and also announced that he had just received the
endorsement of former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon. While many in the crowd
were gay, a lot were not--it was a mix of young and old, gay and
straight, men and women.

Dean attacked President Bush head-on with a range issues, saying what
his own plan would be. He received loud applause when he emphasized
that he did not support the recent war, and explained he has supported
past military efforts, when justified, including Afghanistan and the
first Gulf War.

Near the end of his speech, after dealing with foreign relations, the
economy, education, the environment and other topics, Dean also
addressed a bigger vision for America.

"Let me say one more thing about what we need to change, and this is
probably the most important thing I'm going to say," Dean said. "When
I was 21 years old, toward the end of the civil-rights movement,
America had suffered terribly. Martin Luther King had been killed.
Bobby Kennedy was dead. A lot of other people had gone to the South to
try to get equal rights for everybody ... including killing the four
little girls in a Birmingham church. So that all of us, all the people
in Chicago and elsewhere, could have equal rights under the law. But
it was also a time of great hope in America. Headstart passed,
Medicare passed, The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act ... the
first African American justice of the United States Supreme Court. It
was a time that we were all in it together.

"And what this president has taken from us, more than anything else,
is our sense of community. [applause] And when we say we want our
country back, what I mean is that we want people to come together
again. We want a country where we know that, if one of us is left
behind, the country is not as strong as it could be or as good as it
could be. It is not my responsibility just to have good schools in
Vermont ... or your responsibility ... just to have good schools in
Chicago, you have a responsibility to America, and so do I, to have
good schools in Chicago, good schools in Vermont, good schools in
Mississippi, good schools in Alabama, good schools in Brownsville,
Texas, good schools in Oakland, California. It is all of our
responsibility together as Americans. [applause]

"The president ran as a uniter, not a divider. There wasn't any
evidence for that, either, was there [he was referring to his comments
earlier about the lack of evidence for going to war with Iraq]? When
the president used the word 'quota' five or six times on the evening
news talking about the University of Michigan affirmative action
program, not only did the most conservative Supreme Court since the
Dred Scott decision disagree with him on that one, but every
politician and every pollster in America knows that the word 'quota'
is a race-coded word which is deliberately designed to appeal to
people's fears that they are going to lose their job or their place in
the university to a member of the community of color.

"I am tired of being divided by race in this country, Mr. President.
[applause] I am tired of being divided by gender ... . Who knows
better than an American woman what kind of reproductive healthcare she
needs? [loud applause] I am tired of being divided by sexual
orientation [loud applause] ... . When the president of the United
States can put his arm around Rick Santorum and say 'what a fine
inclusive senator he is,' when he can say Antonin Scalia should be the
next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court ... [boos] I would like a
president of the United States to start to appeal to the very best in
us and stop appealing to the worst in us. [applause]

"This election is not about changing presidents. It is about changing
Washington. We've got to a point in our history which we've seen
before ... where corporations dictate who we are. Corporations are
neither good nor bad. ... They care about the bottom line. But the
problem is that the people in this country are afraid of their
employers because they know that they are not American corporations
any more. That they will take their jobs and put them anywhere in the
world to maximize their bottom line. There is no loyalty from
corporations for their employees anymore. They pay well and give good
benefits, but if you can be thrown away or gypped out of your pension
like they were at Enron after 40 years or 30 years or 20 years and
have nothing, we need a new social contract in America. [applause]

"What this president and his right-wing friends in Washington don't
understand is that capitalism is the greatest system in the world, but
that it doesn't thrive without regulation ... . Efficiency is
important but ... efficiency can be taken too far. Because in the end,
human beings are spiritual beings, we are not meant to be cogs in the
big machine."

People began shouting a few questions.

"What about labor, Howard?" "I think Democrats ought not be afraid of
their roots," Dean said. "The reason we lose is not that we are too
far to the left. The reason we lose is that we forget who brought us
to the dance. At the start ... African Americans, Latinos, women and
trade unionists. ... And if the president continues to be the way he
is, we're going be adding the GLBT community to the core constituency
of the Democratic Party as well. How about ... 90 percent of the LGBT
votes for the Democrats this time [applause]?"

"Howard, what about gays in the military?" shouted one man from the
back. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell doesn't work and we ought to get rid of
it," Dean said. "I should have added that in my list when I first was
talking because .. about the president's security? You know, we don't
have enough Arabic language translators in this country, and a lot of
stuff fell through the cracks before 9/11 because we weren't
interpreting the chatter, it was kind of put aside because we didn't
have enough Arabic language interpreters. So the president responds by
firing six Arabic language interpreters because they happened to be
gay ... What kind of national security policy is that?" The man asked
Dean if he would sign an executive order removing the ban, but Dean
said that while he would do that, it would do no good since the order
needs to be reversed by Congress.

Answering a question about medical marijuana, Dean said "I'll give you
the bad news first, which isn't really bad news and that is that I
don't like legislators and political staff going around scientific
inquiries. The hallmark of this administration is that, if they have a
theory and a fact and the fact contradicts the theory, they throw out
the fact. ... All I ask about marijuana is that we make sure it works
before we do it. I will, as president, order the FDA and the NIH to do
the studies and review the studies that have already been done, in a
one-year period, and when they give us the studies, we'll then approve
whatever they recommend. I'll tell you what I think the position that
they will recommend will be: that you use medical marijuana for cancer
and HIV patients, but they will not OK it for things like glaucoma,
because there are other drugs and the benefits do not outweigh the
risks, and that is how drugs ought to be to be evaluated."

"The biggest lie told to people like you by people like me at election
time is that, if you vote for me, I'm going to fix your problems,"
Dean concluded. "Because the truth is, the power to change this
country is in your hands, not in mine. Abraham Lincoln said that a
government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not
perish from this earth. You have the power to take back the Democratic
Party so we can stand up and start being Democrats again. You have the
power to take back this country so the power no longer belongs solely
to John Ashcroft and Rush Limbaugh. .. Together we have the power to
take back the White House in 2004, and that is exactly what we are
going to do."

Dean jumped down from the stage and began shaking hands with people in
the crowd, many of them pushing forward to touch the man they want for
U.S. president.