Dan Ramos Responds to Open Letter

Legislative Queery received a response from Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Dan Ramos today to our March 18th open letter (Read LQ's Open Letter to Dan Ramos). Ramos is under fire for saying that the Stonewall Democrats were "white termites who have infiltrated the [Democratic] party much like termites infiltrate your house," comparing queer people to Nazis and for a string of racial insensitive remarks. Below is the unedited response from Ramos:

Mr Williams, first of all I want to thank you for being a loyal Democrat, and based on your relationship with your local Democratic Party I want to apologize if my words offended you, believe me if you can get your hands on an unedited tape of my conversation with the SA Current reporter. I suffered a sever accident on Sunday prior to the telephonic interview and was in sever pain, I had to go to the emergency room at two hospitals, and I was under prescribed pain medication, but I take all phone calles even if sometimes I do not feel like it as I suffer sever kidney failure (not using this as a cop out for my language). I was goaded into an argument by the unscrupulous and unprofessional reporter, this situation is not over I promise you. I was specifically asked, why do you take issue with members of the Stonewall Democrats do you not like gays, brother you do not know me and my fight for gay rights for the past 40 years, I do not have to prove my position on gay rights, I have a proven record. I do have an issue with anyone that steals from the BCDP or any crook, and the Stonewall Democrats has at least four members that should have been indicted along with Dr.Dwyane Adams, but they were not at least to this day they have not been indicted. I firmly believe that Mr Adams' new attorney will advise him to cooperate with the DA and name those that were involved in the theft, and these persons are documented as having scammed the BCDP out of its Primary Fund account for their personal use. Now they are using this organization to interfere with the legal process by erasing all BCDP computers of any incriminating evidence that clearly identifies them as thieves of the BCDP Primary funds. This is just a very brief overview of the whole picture, again thanks for your concern and mine,

Respectfully,

Dan Ramos
BCDP Chair

An Open Letter to Dan Ramos

From: Daniel Williams [legislativequeery@gmail.com]
Date: Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 3:18 PM
Subject: I'm a termite
To: Dan Ramos [dramos458@yahoo.com]

Dear Mr. Ramos,

I must admit that I found your recent comments claiming that LGBT people in general and the Stonewall Democrats specifically were like "white termites who have infiltrated the [Democratic] party much like termites infiltrate your house" extremely upsetting. Although I have never been a member of the Baxar County Democratic party, of which you are chairman, I have been active in Democratic party politics in Denton, Dallas, Travis and Harris counties and initially found your statement to be shockingly ungrateful for all of the work that I, and people like me, have done to support the Democratic party.

I'm told that the Baxar county party treasurer is currently under indictment for embezzling funds. It must be frightening for you to have an organization you care about experiencing such troubles. I'm sure that there must be uninformed people who question how you are connected to the scandal. Under that stress I can understand why you might attempt to deflect criticism onto a group of people already held suspect by many.

I have mulled over your choice of term: "termites". I have to admit I have not spent much time considering termites or their attributes. So after my initial shock abated I decided to figure out exactly what it was I was being compared to. I discovered some interesting facts:

• All termites are social insects, they live in highly organized communities with thousands of members (actually, that sounds a lot like living in the Cedar Springs area of Dallas or the Montrose area of Houston).
• Young termites are responsible for the manual labor of the colony (I've had countless experiences walking door to door in support of Democratic candidates with different Stonewall Democratic clubs - inevitably the younger Stonewalls are out on the streets while the straight party stalwarts stay at the campaign headquarters and reminisce about the old days - so maybe, in that respect, we are a little like termites ).
• Termite colonies work non-stop 24 hours a day (I've only met state Stonewall president Dan Graney a few times, but he always seems to be working - the same can be said for people like Brad Pritchett of Houston, Eli Olivarez of the Rio Grande Valley, Omar Narvaez of Dallas and countless other Stonewall leaders throughout the state. At any given time, I can assure you, a Stonewall Democrat is working for your party - maybe you're on to something with this whole "termite" thing).
• Termites have been around for millions of years (and queer Democrats have been around since the party's inception -anyone who is just now noticing us just hasn't been paying attention).

Maybe you're right, maybe I am a termite. Maybe in your blind screed of bigotry you have hit upon a high compliment to the hard-working Stonewall Democrats all over the state. Maybe your particular brand of mental illness has granted you the superpower of uncannily identifying the most accurate animal analogue for a group of people. But be warned, because here's two more facts about termites:

• When a termite colony is no longer hospitable - they swarm: large clouds of termites - thousands of them - leave the colony to find a better home
• Termites cause approximately 2 billion dollars of damage nationwide each year. Just imagine how much damage LGBT Democrats could do if they, perhaps offended by some party leader's remark, decided to stop donating to the party.

So thank you for your compliment. Thank you for so succinctly describing the attributes, and power, of queer Democrats. Having correctly identified who my community is I request that you politely resign you position. Thank you, in advance, for your timely consideration.

Isopteraly,

Daniel Williams