Miriam Ben-Shalom, May 3, 1948 (Waukesha, Wis.) -
VP candidate for Queer Nation Party (1992)
Running mate with nominee: Joan Jett Blakk (b. ca1957)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Joan Jett Blakk was the drag persona of Chicago-based Terence Smith created in 1974. "I kind of think of myself," Blakk said in an interview, "as a combination of Divine, David Bowie in his early days, and Grace Jones--mix that all up and you’re talking Joan Jett Blakk."
Blakk ran for Mayor of Chicago in 1991, and having weathered the political spotlight in one major campaign, ran for President in 1992 under the auspices of the Queer Nation organization. It was recognized the effort was purely for publicity and getting the word out rather than ballot access or winning.
Blakk was, as far as I can ascertain, "the first queer, black drag-queen" to run for President. But she was not the first Gay activist to be on a ticket. I believe that place in the record books belongs to Harold Franklin Moore, who was the VP on the Oregon ballot with Lenora Fulani under the New Alliance Party (listed as "Independent") in 1988. Moore died as a result of AIDS in 1989.
The electioneering was campy but had a serious foundation. With the AIDS pandemic still going strong under the regime of the two-term Ronald Reagan who never once addressed it in public, even four years later under George H.W. Bush it remained a national health crisis the major parties were too afraid to adequately address for fear of being perceived as pro-Gay.
Her campaign slogan was "Lick Bush in '92." To be precise she used the term "camp-pain"-- "putting in the camp, taking out the pain, honey." Blakk promised to paint the White House lavender or pink, have "Dykes on Bikes" patrol our national borders, universal healthcare, pro-choice, abolish student debt, move the capital to Palm Springs, "give everything back to the Indians and let them take from there," be the first president to take calls directly from constituents, instead of the FBI we'll have the Fashion Bureau of Investigation, "fire everyone in Washington," the whole country needs redecorating, and to generally make America "more fabulous, more fruitful, and more glamorous."
There was a method to this camp-pain, Blakk said, "You can watch the news and never hear the word 'Gay’ mentioned. That just unnerves me. But with this campaign, they'll have to say the word; I'll make them."
Blakk's operatives, in a method that was accused of being made behind closed doors by an all boys club, chose Miriam Ben-Shalom in June 1992 to be Blakk's running-mate. Ben-Shalom had become a national figure, a hero to many, for challenging the military's discriminatory treatment of Gay soldiers. She had been discharged from the Army against her wishes and fought in the courts to be reinstated in 1987 but in 1990 the Army pushed her out again. Still, her reinstatement had been a victory no matter how short-lived. By 1992 she was a civilian but continuing to be an activist.
Demonstrating that the Gay community was a broader and more diverse movement than mainstream Americans realized, the Blakk campaign experienced as much conflict from within as it did from the outside. In addition to the perceived gender split in the decision-making process for the campaign, a segment of the Queer Nation Party were not pleased that a person associated with the military had been selected as the VP. Others in the QNP felt the joke had gone awry and a serious social problem was being trivialized.
I could not locate any source demonstrating that Ben-Shalom had accepted the nomination or campaigned for the ticket.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Shivelva Kennedy-Sinatra (aka J.V. McAuley) was also on the ticket running for the position of First Lady, which must have a first in several categories.
Efforts were made, to no avail, to be placed on a few ballots. Although Blakk warned voters, "If you don't elect me President, we're gonna have to go to another planet," she ran again in 1996 under the Blakk Pantsuit Party.
Ben-Shalom went to become an even more controversial figure and was charged with being transphobic when she voiced her opinion that she felt the transgender movement was oppressive to women and had co-opted issues she had fought for earlier in her activism.
She also made the news when in Oct. 2016, at age 68, she taught a would-be carjacker in Milwaukee that he was messing with the wrong ex-Army sergeant as she thwarted his crime.
Election history: none
Other occupations: Israeli Army, US Army, technical college instructor, co-founder Gay Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America
Notes:
Converted from Catholicism to Judaism, became an Israeli citizen and served in the army of that country for a couple years. Returned to the US in 1971.
