Gay Today: People

Bob Kunst:
An Indefatigable Maverick Strikes Back

By Jesse Monteagudo

Activist Bob Kunst protests outside the GOP Convention last summer

Americans have a short attention span. Having lived through the most disputed election since 1876, we now act as if George W. Bush won in a landslide. The corporate media, obsessed with Bill Clinton's last-minute pardon follies (however justified), gladly accepts Bush's self-proclaimed "mandate".

The Democrats, not wanting to be "divisive", have done little to oppose Bush's right-wing appointments and proposals except to offer a few weak ideas of their own. Most Americans seem willing to forget that Al Gore won the popular votes, and that "Dubya" only won the electoral votes after a disputed election in his brother's home state that was decided by a divided and partisan Supreme Court.

Not everyone has fallen for the media's new-found love affair with "Shrub". Though Chris Matthews and Tim Russert and Andrew Sullivan might be willing to forgive and forget, they do not speak for all of us. At least one activist is determined to continue the battle, if only to remind his fellow Americans that George W. Bush did not "win" last year's presidential election.

I first met Bob Kunst back in 1976, when I was a young neophyte and he ran Miami's Transperience Center with the late Alan Rockway. During the next quarter-century Kunst won fame and controversy as a leader in the gay, Jewish, and AIDS activist movements. Kunst's most famous creation, the Oral Majority, is a deliberate response to Rev. Jerry Falwell's "moral majority".

The veteran gay activist and author Jack Nichols called Kunst "a one-man Florida road-show marked with an indefatigable maverick's stamp" - the kind of man who will not be deterred by a so-called "mandate".

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In the Oral Majority Web site (www.oralmajorityonline.com), Kunst expressed his group's unwillingness to recognize Bush's legitimacy:

"While some have given up, caved-in, accepted Bush as their President, he isn't our President and we will always see him as illegitimate, an imposter and a thief and treat him as such," Kunst wrote.

"The nation and everything we hold sacred, including our vote, has been stolen from us. There is a 'cover-up', and little to no Democratic leadership to fight it, while their strategy has backfired completely and made the nation and planet vulnerable to their selfish politics, over the needs of our beloved country."

Like the patriots of yore, Kunst's Oral Majority has launched a "Second American Revolution" against this new "King George". "Kunst refuses to listen to nay sayers who suggest that we 'can't do anything' and that he should 'give up,'" wrote Stephen L. Goldstein, in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "Instead, the 'Oral Majority' has designed an agenda to tweak, mobilize and wake up America."

George W. Bush is president, and even Kunst must realize that no amount of protest will force him to resign. So what is the goal of the Oral Majority's "Bushit" campaign?

"The goal", Kunst tells me, "is to never stop talking about Gore winning Florida and our role in it, and about Bush stealing the election, and about the 'soul of America' needing to be resisted both morally as well as strategically; for resistance keeps the enemy at bay from being too reckless. The cowardly Democrats could have spoken out instead of 'sharing power' and covering up this disaster. Our efforts is to take back our country and our Democratic Party by constant visibility."

The Oral Majority, Kunst reminds me, has done a lot to fulfill its goal, though you wouldn't know it from the scant media coverage. "Since November 7 we had over 300 news interviews, 66 protests and over 15,000 'No More Bushit' stickers and buttons circulating. It's the one slogan the GOPerverts do not know how to respond to and we've been using it for over a year and gotten the same reaction continually as we trump 'sore-loserman' [the GOP's term for Al Gore] and everything else they have to say. It's been on my car for the last 7 months and 15 south/north trips and not one problem and this is consistent for all who are fighting back. No problems. So it's also a matter of empowerment to be visible and let go of the arbitrary fear imposed by the Bushit media as well," he says.

Though the Oral Majority is a small group, it has received support from labor, civil rights and some Democratic groups. Oral Majority chapters are now forming in Broward County, throughout the State of Florida and in nine other states. And while Kunst admits that "we have had no relationship with any particular gay group", much of his support has come from his own lesbian and gay community. "We have many gays and lesbians who have been with us in protests and are becoming members," he adds.

Bob Kunst coins the 'No Bushit' slogan during last April's Millennium March on Washington

Those of us who remember Bob Kunst's Miami Victory Campaign against Save Our Children (from Homosexuality) will smile at the tactics employed by Kunst and his Oral Majority. For Bush's January 20 inauguration Kunst led a "Florida Freedom Ride" from Miami, FL to Washington, D.C.; with strategic stops in Jeb Bush's Tallahassee and Jerry Falwell's Lynchburg. An Oral Majority aerial banner flew over the Super Bowl football game in Tampa, reminding the spectators that "BUSH STOLE THE ELECTION". A similar banner flew over the Daytona 500 car race last week. "No more Bushit" stickers and pins have spread the message and raised funds for the Oral Majority.

Though I often disagreed with Bob Kunst's tactics--I prefer a more subtle approach myself, thank you--I respect his persistence and his commitment to the various causes that the two of us share. We have had so many disappointments over the years that it is easy to just give up and to go along with the program.

This is something that Kunst will never do. As he puts it, "we don't have to compromise, we have answers. The best defense is the great offense that we have that crosses all party lines in mobilizing loyal Americans feeling that something smells rotten and we are moving that mountain to deal with all that talent and energy, and outrage." Such idealism cannot be easily dismissed.

For more information contact the Oral Majority at P.O. Box 402263, Miami Beach, FL 33140, 305-864-5110, or theoralmajority@hotmail.com.

Jesse Monteagudo is a freelance writer who lives in South Florida with his domestic partner of over 15 years. He may be reached at jessemonteagudo@aol.com.