|
The
Washington
Post
Democratic Candidates
Address Gay Rights
By DAVID CRARY, AP
from washingtonpost.com on the Web, August 8, 2007
NEW YORK -- The gay-rights
movement reaches a milestone Thursday when its agenda is the subject of a
televised Democratic presidential forum. Yet many activists -- craving
bolder support for same-sex couples -- view the unprecedented event with mixed
emotions.
Though pleased that all the candidates of a major party are courting their votes
and endorsing the bulk of their political wish-list, they are frustrated that
none of the front-runners is calling for legalization of gay marriage.
The forum, to be held in Los Angeles, is co-sponsored by the Human Rights
Campaign, a gay-rights group that has become increasingly influential in
Democratic politics, and by Logo, the gay-oriented cable channel that will
provide a live telecast and Internet simulcast. Every Democratic candidate
except Joe Biden and Chris Dodd plans to participate.
Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese will serve as a panelist, along
with singer Melissa Etheridge and Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan
Capehart.
"I hope we can get genuinely heartfelt answers," said Solmonese, who wants the
leading candidates to explain why they remain wary of gay marriage.
Organizers say the forum marks the first time that major presidential candidates
will appear on TV specifically to address gay issues.
"Simply seeing the candidates step on a stage to speak to a national gay
television audience may be as moving as anything they say," said Logo's
president, Brian Graden.
Logo, available in about 27 million homes, offered to hold a second forum for
Republican candidates, but the GOP front-runners -- less supportive of
gay-rights initiatives than the Democrats -- showed no interest, said Logo
general manager Lisa Sherman.
The Democrats will appear sequentially at 15-minute intervals during the
two-hour forum, never sharing the stage with one another.
All of them support a federal ban on anti-gay job discrimination, favor repeal
of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring gays from serving openly in the
military and support civil unions that would extend marriage-like rights to
same-sex couples.
But thus far, only two longshots -- Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former
Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel -- have endorsed nationwide recognition of same-sex
marriage, which a majority of Americans oppose.
"No viable mainstream contender for president is going to support gay marriage
in this election cycle," said Ethan Geto, an adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton
on gay-rights issues. "I hope that's going to change in the next couple of
elections."
Geto suggested that Clinton's hesitancy on same-sex marriage stemmed from her
religious upbringing. Yet he also described her as a passionate supporter
of other gay-rights causes who is willing to raise those issues even before
non-gay audiences.
One of Clinton's chief rivals, John Edwards, has acknowledged wrestling with his
stance on gay marriage.
"I feel enormous conflict about it," he said in a televised debate in July.
"This is a very, very difficult issue for me."
He noted that his wife, Elizabeth, broke ranks with him in June and publicly
endorsed same-sex marriage.
The third Democratic front-runner, Sen. Barack Obama, belongs to the United
Church of Christ, which supports gay marriage, but Obama has yet to go that far.
Many gays and lesbians have submitted questions they would like posed at the
forum; Charlene Strong of Seattle said she'd like to be there in person.
Her longtime partner, Kathryn Fleming, died in December after being trapped by
floodwaters, and Strong was initially barred from the hospital room because she
was not considered immediate family.
"I'd like the candidates to spell it out -- what would you do to be sure that
doesn't happen," Strong said. "How do you get to full equality?"
Evan Wolfson, a gay-rights lawyer and executive director of Freedom to Marry,
said the good news -- in his view -- is that all the Democratic candidates
support fairness for same-sex couples.
"The bad news is they haven't yet grasped that equality in marriage is how you
achieve that fairness," Wolfson added. "There is no substitute. They
wouldn't trade their marriage for a civil union. Why should gay
Americans?"
Wolfson said he was frustrated by the candidates' sometimes awkward answers
regarding same-sex marriage.
"Americans would respect someone who leads, rather than someone who ducks and
evades," he said.
Another activist, Kate Kendell of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said
she was unsure to what extent the candidates' hesitancy reflected deep-set
beliefs as opposed to political calculations.
"Either way, it leaves lesbian and gay couples in the position of being publicly
regarded as an inferior kind of relationship," she said.
However, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of two openly gay members of Congress,
said he understood the candidates' caution.
"It's not wrong for people trying to become president to take political
considerations into account," Frank said. "I don't want a bunch of martyrs
on my side."
Among the Republicans, none of the candidates favor repeal of "don't ask, don't
tell" and only former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has supported limited
legal recognition for same-sex couples.
Some conservative activists have denounced the upcoming forum.
"It's disgraceful that our nation's moral standards have now dipped so low that
it's considered 'tolerant' to hold a debate organized entirely around the
promotion of sexual immorality," said Matt Barber, cultural issues policy
director for Concerned Women for America.
|
