Kentucky's Gay Hope

At just 24 years old and with a meager $150 in campaign finances, earlier this week, Matthew Vanderpool pulled off the unthinkable, beating an Air Force veteran and a lawyer to win the Democratic primary for the 45th district of Kentucky's house of representatives. Now, as the openly gay candidate gears up to face one of the state's most notoriously antigay politicians, Vanderpool talks to The Advocate about what made him run, what he expects from campaign season, and why he's sick of hearing politicians talk.

The Advocate: Why did you decide to run against incumbent Rep. Stan Lee?
Matthew Vanderpool: I got into it originally because I just couldn't stand Stan Lee. But that eventually went away, and I started thinking about how tired I was of hearing politicians talk. We need people in there that are actually going to do stuff, and work with the people. I've said throughout the entire campaign thus far -- Stan's been in office since 2001, and I've always believed that if you stay in office that long, you start to lose focus on why you got in there, and it just becomes a job. You lose that passion, and that drive that got you in there in the first place. They start to think, Oh, I'll just keep running, but you can't do that to people. So I believe that even though I am as young as I am, my knowledge and enthusiasm can get the things done that need to be done. I don't like the term "politician." I don't consider myself one. I keep saying "public servant."

Have you always been interested in politics?
Honestly, I know this sounds corny, but I remember telling my mom, as far back as I can remember, "Mom, I want to go into politics. I want to help people." I think that's why I ran at 24. I guess I just waited until I was legally old enough to run, to achieve this dream of mine.

Despite facing an Air Force veteran and an attorney, you won this primary with minimal advertising. How were you able to win over your opponents with such a strategy?
I believed that you have to speak to everybody. I didn't even care if I was talking to someone who didn't live in my district. I spoke to everybody. Even the homeless down in Lexington. I guess that's how my name got out there. I was shocked. I was sitting down there at City Hall, because I wanted to be hands-on in my first campaign. I was obviously really excited, and I was sitting there thinking, "There's no way I'm going to win this. I've only raised $150, and my opponents have raised $6000, and now that I look back, it's really just speaking to the people. I never turned down an event I was invited to, I felt honored to be invited to those events. I figured if someone wants to hear me speak, I couldn't turn it down. I think it was just staying true to myself, and speaking to everybody across the country. I wanted to hear people's stories, and what was bothering them. I think they got kinda shocked when they would ask me, "What are you going to do for me?" because I would reply to them with, "Well, what do you want me to do?"

Are there any other openly gay legislators in Kentucky?
Ernesto Scorsone is one of them. He was our only one for a long time, but he's no longer in office. He's now an executive judge in Fayette County. He's been keeping up on our campaign for a while. There was one other guy who was running in Louisville, but he lost, unfortunately. I actually just left him a message this morning. But other than that, I'm the only openly gay candidate running for the house that I know of, and there's no one else in the legislature that's open.

Stan Lee, as your campaign manager was telling me, is not exactly the most pro-gay person in Kentucky...
[Laughs] Yeah, I think that's the understatement of the century.

I'll just be more diplomatic about it. Do you think that being openly gay will be a challenge for you when running up against Lee and among some of the district's constituents?
It's gonna be very, very difficult, because Stan is very conservative and very antigay, that I wouldn't be surprised that during this campaign he might throw an f word around at least a couple of times. It really would not shock me at all. But I think if I stand my ground and stay true to it -- I know this is really cliche, but someone I really look up to is Cleve Jones. And Harvey Milk is such an inspiration to me. Some people in the district have even called me the next Harvey Milk. I think it's a joke now, but even still, it's so inspiring to hear that. So I think going up against him, I don't think it'll be too much of a problem. It's basically the only thing he has to attack me on. I said in an interview back in November -- someone asked me, "So you are openly gay?" and I said "Not necessarily the gay candidate, but someone who happens to be gay." Some people take that as me turning my back on the gay community, and that's not it at all. I've embraced all of it. They're the ones that got me here. But I want people to understand that I'm for everybody. I'm not just for gays. I'm representing everybody, but I think that approach has helped me a lot, that I'm more than just a gay candidate. And I think that eventually more people will warm up to that term. Right now, in Kentucky, we're in a Southern state where it's a naughty word to be gay. But once you let people meet you, they say, "Oh he's gay and he's not so bad." It's going to open people's eyes to not only help me hopefully win, but also help gay issues in the state.

What would you say to some gay people about the state of Kentucky, and why they shouldn't be discounted as a place to live, or respect?
I grew up in eastern Kentucky. There really are certain parts of the state you can't even mention the word "gay." But if you go into Lexington and Louisville and Paducah, some of the bigger cities, which is generally the case, it's not so bad. I remember reading that Lexington is one of the top places in the country to be if you're gay. So it's a beautiful state, there's so many things you can do. I love horses, so that's what I'm into. When I went down to volunteer after Katrina, people still looked at my feet, wondering whether I had shoes on. I think people still have the conception that we're just a bunch of redneck hillbillies. We're coming along. I think the biggest thing is to give us a chance. When you get to Kentucky, and see how nice the people are, and how beautiful it is, and someone greets you at the gas station, you'll like it. The other day, there was this guy coming down from New England, and he said "I don't want to leave here. You all say hello to me every time I walk into a public place." I just told him that's how we are.

So you were sidetracked from going to college right after high school because of a really bad jet ski accident. Has that influenced or shaped the message of your campaign, or your purpose?
It's slowed me down. I was 18 years old when I had that accident. We thought it was the end as far as my physical abilities. The boat, when it hit me, it broke everything on my left side and damaged a few of my organs. It slowed me down, and it made me appreciate life because I was on the brink of death, and I came back from it. I'm here. I'm not extremely religious, but I do believe in God. I'm very spiritual. While I was in the hospital, a pastor came in, and he said, "You're in here for a reason. You were supposed to die. Everything points to you dying, but you're destined for something." I hear those words every single day in my head, and I think that gives me the drive to keep doing what I'm doing. Even though I've had many downs in this campaign, I've had a few ups as well. I've never given up, and I'll never give up. In the event that I do lose this election, and I hope that I don't, I want to focus solely on gay rights and civil rights. I'm destined to something and if it's not politics, it's something. I want to serve the people.

Looking forward, what do you think is going to take to win this election against Stan Lee?
Patience. It's going to take a lot of patience, a lot of hard work. To be honest, I'm still in such a mindset that I can't believe that I'm having this conversation with you. Its just going to take a lot of hard work. I think the biggest thing is staying true to myself. My mom raised me, and from her I learned to respect hard work, and to never lie, and I think that will carry me a long way. I'm going to be letting people know who I am, and what I want to do for them. I think that will separate me and Stan, because he is definitely a politician and he talks a lot of fluff, to be perfectly honest. He just says what people want to hear. I don't think that's a good leader. Sometimes you have to say things that people don't want to hear, but you have to say them because it's in their best interest. You have to stay true to yourself, and not be a machine.

What are some of the major issues in your district that you face?
My biggest focus is education. I'm going to college to be a high school history teacher. Right now the dropout rate is number 1 in the nation. So we're going to be focusing on that, hot and heavy, to keep kids in school and find out why they're dropping out. I just don't believe kids are waking up in the morning and saying, "I think I'm going to drop out of school." There's other reasons there, so we're going to work with some advocacy groups for youths, and programs, to see if we can get these kids excited about going to school. If it's a money thing, and their parents are pushing for it, we're going to look at that, but we have to understand why kids are dropping out of school. Here in Kentucky, we already have this reputation for not being necessarily the smartest state in the United States, so we have to work on that, that's for sure.

Another thing we rank number one in the nation is child abuse, and I think that some of that -- the dropout rate and domestic violence -- goes hand in hand. It's a psychological thing. I do mental health volunteering at the Red Cross for the national disaster volunteer unit, and I volunteered in Katrina, and learned a lot from it. I, myself, have experienced domestic violence. My father was a drinker, which is a huge story to get involved in, but with those two issues, I've always been an advocate. We have to keep our kids in schools. You have to support our kids in school, and you have to support our teachers. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for some of my teachers. We wouldn't have lawyers, we wouldn't have doctors, so you have to support teachers. As far as district-wise, the economy is hurting people. Our employment rate in Kentucky is getting a little bit better, but it's not good enough. It's still at 10%, so it's not good enough. There's still people looking for work, so that's another thing we've gotta work on.