To the Candidates: The Door Is Open

• Politics and Law

Visible Vote 08Tonight’s HRC/LOGO Presidential Forum will be a groundbreaking event, regardless of what is said. To have major presidential candidates discuss LGBT issues in a focused setting is a significant step forward in acceptance and awareness. Mainstream media is covering the event. All of the Democratic candidates will be there, except for Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, who have scheduling conflicts. (The Republican candidates were asked by HRC/LOGO to participate in a separate forum, and all declined.)

The opportunity for the candidates is huge. They can show themselves as leaders unafraid of standing up for our country’s core values of equality and individual freedom. They can gain the support of a community with a known propensity for brand loyalty and bloc voting. They can demonstrate to the left, and even to many in the center and right, that they don’t want the radical right shoving their brand of God’s will down our collective throats. They can prove they have campaign strategists smart enough to read the evidence that support for marriage equality doesn’t lose elections.

There is not yet a single candidate around whom the LGBT community is rallying. That’s a sign of progress when it means more than one candidate supports some level of LGBT rights—and all of the Democrats do. Openly lesbian member of Congress Tammy Baldwin has declared herself for Hillary, and gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson has declared for Obama. Obama’s campaign has just announced a National LGBT Leadership Council. Edwards may still “struggle” with marriage equality, but is supportive of other LGBT rights. His wife, Elizabeth, was the first among the frontrunners and their spouses to come out in support of full marriage equality. Not the same as the candidate’s support, but still significant. Among the other candidates, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich have declared support for full marriage equality, but remain longshots.

Marriage equality should not be the only issue discussed, however, no matter how much it is a rallying point for LGBT friends and foes alike. We need to make sure our children are protected when we cross state lines. We need to reduce homophobic bullying in schools and discrimination in the workplace. We need to address the high incidence of homelessness among LGBT youth. We need to remember AIDS is still with us, and not just an excuse for a walk around the park once a year. We need to remember that “LGBT” is a loose federation comprised of often disparate components, and that issues of race and class are tightly bound with LGBT concerns. We need a candidate who will work with us to achieve these goals and more.

Still, if any of the frontrunners were to declare themselves for marriage equality in this forum, they would stand a very good chance of pulling away from the rest of the pack in the eyes of LGBT voters. They would also benefit from a ripple effect: one in four Americans know someone who is gay or lesbian, and such people are more than twice as likely to support marriage equality (and, I assume, the candidates who support it) than those who don’t. Tonight is the perfect opportunity: it is “bad enough,” in the eyes of the radical right, that the candidates are appearing in an LGBT forum at all. To add support of marriage equality at the same time would be an incremental sin. Will any of the lead candidates take the plunge? (I doubt it, but anything’s possible.) If so, will the ones who stick with civil unions make up for it by being stronger on other aspects of LGBT equality? Will that split the bloc of LGBT support?

I encourage you all to watch the debate and see how both the candidates and the panelists handle themselves. Who fudges? Who throws softballs? Who is most comfortable discussing LGBT issues? How do the candidates’ answers fit, in your mind, with their stances on education, health care, the environment, the war in Iraq, and other matters that concern you? Put the kids to bed early, or let them stay up late and watch with you if they are old enough. These are their issues, too.

I will be a guest columnist on Visible Vote 08, writing about my reactions to the event. Post should be up by sometime tomorrow morning. I won’t be liveblogging, since I can’t type as fast as I think, and other crack political bloggers like Pam Spaulding and Lane Hudson are already planning to do blow-by-blow commentary. I will repost my article here at Mombian, but I hope you will stop by Visible Vote to see what others have to say as well.

For more background reading about the candidates and event, try:

The forum will be broadcast tonight on LOGO at 9:00 pm ET (6:00 pm PT) and through live streaming video at VisibleVote08.com. Tune in if you can—and regardless, make sure you are registered to vote.

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