2008 Presidential Election: April 2008 Archives

In an April 23 Op-Ed in The Ithaca Journal, Christopher Latimer, a political scientist and openly gay Republican, raised issues surrounding John McCain’s candidacy as it relates to LGBT voters that haven’t been fully discussed in the media before.

While McCain gets mixed reviews from conservatives and liberals on his general voting record, little has been reported on the long-term consequences for the LGBT community with regard to potential McCain appointments.

A key argument that hasn’t been raised during this election cycle with regard to any of the candidates for President is the impact that their appointments will have on LGBT Americans.  Latimer discusses the wide latitude that an Attorney General has in deciding which discrimination cases are pursued at the federal level and notes that given McCain’s opposition to an inclusive hate crimes law and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, it’s unlikely that a McCain appointee serving in such a critical role would be an advocate for the LGBT community.

Even more significant would be the lasting impact that a new justice on the Supreme Court would have.  McCain voted for the confirmations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito – both of whom haven’t voted on any cases that are significant for the LGBT community but have generally sided with Justices Scalia and Thomas on many cases that are related to social issues.  President Bush has railed against ‘activist judges’ and McCain has seemed to take the same verbal posture when it comes to discussing potential nominees to the court. 

It’s critical that the media continue to look beyond the voting records of the individual candidates to the long-term repercussions that Presidential appointees will have for the LGBT community.

Paul Karr is the Director of Media Field Strategy 

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s campaigns have been visibly courting LGBT voters in Pennsylvania in the few final days leading up to today’s primary. The media have focused attention on the LGBT electorate with prominent stories in different regional and national outlets, picking up on why LGBT voters support who they support, and highlighting each campaign’s LGBT outreach strategies.

LGBT press reported heavily on Chelsea Clinton’s Friday night out at Philadelphia’s gay bars. She was accompanied by prominent Clinton supporter and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. But Chelsea’s night out wasn’t all the media saw. National cable TV outlets, as well as local Pennsylvania press, picked up on her recent walking-tour, where she campaigned for gay and lesbian votes. Mainstream and gay outlets both covered Chelsea interacting with the community in a more social setting, and were just as interested in her more traditional campaigning.

Monday’s Patriot-News featured a story on why LGBT voters were voting for one candidate over another.  Nearly all of the coverage focusing on the LGBT Pennsylvania electorate has explored the reasons behind why individual voters are supporting their candidates.
 
According to the Patriot-News piece, LGBT voters seem to be expressing personal preferences that aren’t related to the candidates’ positions on LGBT issues, but rather broader issues like health care, the economy or the war in Iraq. As we have seen from the beginning of this election season, journalists are framing LGBT issues (like marriage for gay and lesbian couples) as larger social issues. In return, the media are reflecting the diversity of LGBT voters, and reporting on the fact that LGBT voters care about issues across the board, and that voters across the board care about LGBT issues.

Paul Karr is the Director of Media Field Strategy

Presidential hopeful John McCain might be seen by many as independent, but he’s actually conservative, the Associated Press (AP) wrote today. The story pointed out that though McCain does not support a federal ban on marriage for gay and lesbian couples, he is by no means an advocate for the gay community in large part because he does support statewide marriage bans. In a CNN interview last month, he said he was “proud to have led an effort in my home state to change our state constitution to protect the sanctity of marriage as between a man and a woman” and that as President, he “will continue to advocate for those fundamental principles.”

The AP story, which was picked up by dozens and dozens of papers across the country, goes out of its way to remind Americans that likely Republican presidential nominee McCain is not an independent at all, but that he falls in line with conservatives. It points out his support of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, his opposition to hate crimes legislation, and his opposition to protecting gay and transgender people from job discrimination.

The article grouped McCain’s anti-gay stances with his anti-abortion, pro-war, and gun control stances. The fact that the AP spent considerable time discussing McCain’s stances on gay issues right alongside other social issues places our community at the forefront of the election. The article’s use of the gay issues as one of four categories of controversial social issues may serve to again position the gay community as a wedge with voters. The media’s regular reporting on the candidates and the gay community may influence voters with opinions on gay issues (for better or for worse).

Paul Karr is the Director of Media Field Strategy 

Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama sat down last week with The Advocate to discuss topics such as his hopes for LGBT legislation during his term as president, his first friendship with an openly gay person, and the effects of the Donnie McClurkin controversy.  Over the course of the campaign, Obama has often taken a different path than his rival Sen. Hillary Clinton when it comes to where he addresses LGBT issues.  Clinton already spoke with The Advocate last fall and since Super Tuesday has also given interviews to regional LGBT newspapers like the Washington Blade and the Philadelphia Gay News, while Obama previously had not spoken to the LGBT press since 2004.

During the interview, Obama addressed criticisms he has received for what some perceive as silence towards LGBT media.  When he declined an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News last week, the paper responded by printing a blank space in its pages where his interview would have appeared.  Obama told The Advocate that he has chosen to focus on discussing LGBT issues to a general audience rather than speaking to specialized press.  “It’s easy to preach to the choir,” he said. “What I think is harder is to speak to a broader audience about why these issues are important to all Americans.”  He then mentioned his speech at Ebenezer Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Day where he “talked about the need to get over the homophobia in the African-American community.”

Discussing the controversy over including anti-gay pastor Donnie McClurkin on his South Carolina tour, Obama said it was an opportunity for constituencies with differing opinions to have a more open discussion.  “If you’re segmenting your base into neat categories and constituency groups and you never try to bring them together […] you never create the opportunity for people to have a conversation and to lift some of these issues up and to talk about them and to struggle with them,” he said.

The Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld notes how the length of the Democratic primaries has given candidates more time to reach out to LGBT constituents through the media.  “Candidates continually pivot and adjust in order to engage ever more voters,” she said.  “Had the race stopped cold in the snows of New Hampshire, gays and lesbians would have been left with one interview of record for each Democratic candidate in total.”  Whether through mainstream or LGBT media, the candidates hopefully will continue to include LGBT issues as a vital part of their platform and LGBT constituents as an essential part of their voting base.

Cindi Creager is Director of National News 

On Monday, April 7, Ellen DeGeneres hosted Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton on her daily talk show, Ellen. Though the two joked about Clinton’s relationship with Madonna (they’re cousins!?) and the Senator’s attempt to “bowl for voters” (you've got to see it for yourself), the conversation turned serious as Clinton told Ellen she was vowing to “defend gay rights as President and eliminate inequalities for same-sex couples in Federal law.”

Clinton went on to tell a personal story from her childhood about her family’s gay neighbors and how her close-minded father grew to love and accept them — and how the candidate herself saw firsthand how her family’s dear friends were denied hospital visitation rights when one of the men got sick. “That made such an impression on me,” she told Ellen, “and I’m going to do everything I can so that people like you and [partner] Portia have a chance to have rights...We just have to make this much more fair.” 

 

Kudos to Ellen for making sure Clinton addressed issues that are not only important to her personally, but to many in her audience as well. As we’ve seen in recent months, Ellen has spoken passionately about the shooting death of teen Lawrence King and about Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern's anti-gay rhetoric. With the immense popularity of Ellen the show, Ellen the entertainer is able to create a bridge that makes the discussion of LGBT issues accessible and urgent for all Americans, and to hold the candidates accountable for their support of the LGBT community.

 

Damon Romine is Director of Entertainment Media 

As presidential hopefuls vie for the vote in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary, the Philadelphia Gay News invited the candidates to an interview about their positions on LGBT issues.  Sen. Hillary Clinton accepted the invitation and spoke at length with the newspaper about her stances on legislation that would affect LGBT lives. Clinton explained that she would eliminate the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, oppose foreign governments that persecute gay people, support federal domestic partner legislation, advocate for support services for gay youth as well as take part in gay pride celebrations. Additionally, though she supports states’ ability to define marriage, Clinton explained that she would oppose a Pennsylvania ballot measure prohibiting marriage for gay and lesbian people. “I would be very distressed if Pennsylvania were to adopt that kind of mean-spirited referendum and I hope it won’t happen,” she said.

 

Clinton’s interview with the Philadelphia Gay News and the Associated Press’s report about it again reinforce the growing visibility and importance of LGBT media in the 2008 election and the willingness of candidates to discuss the issues that matter to LGBT Americans.  However, both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama declined to talk with the Gay News.  The paper responded to Obama’s refusal by printing a blank space in its pages where his interview would have appeared.  While not unusual for McCain, this decision marks a change for the Obama campaign, which has worked to reach out to the LGBT community by placing advertisements in Texas and Ohio, engaging issues that matter to LGBT voters in speeches and forums, and other outreach efforts.  As the Democratic primary continues to move forward, the role of LGBT issues – and LGBT media – will hopefully continue to play a meaningful role in shaping voter decisions.

 

Paul Karr is Director of Media Field Strategy 

Though many musicians have spoken up on behalf of the candidates they support for president, many LGBT public figures — musicians and otherwise — remain tight-lipped, likely because no candidate has pledged their full support of the LGBT community. As we approach November, out celebrities have the opportunity and the platform to make a difference by publicly calling on the presidential candidates to be leaders in the quest for equality.  

Last Thursday, March 27, out rocker Melissa Etheridge participated in a national conference call for the Stonewall Democrats, along with Chelsea Clinton, out Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and Oklahoma Corporations Commissioner Jim Roth, the state’s first openly gay public official. More than 1,000 Stonewall Democrats listened in at house parties across the country as the four discussed how the LGBT community can continue to keep its issues on the forefront of presidential politics well into the general election season.

Etheridge is no stranger to the political platform. Back in August, she participated as a panelist in the HRC/Logo Presidential Forum. At that time, she had not announced her support for any candidate, but on the Stonewall Democrats call, she spoke as a representative of Sen. Barack Obama.  

Sir Elton John has been a long-time supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, and is pulling out the stops to help fill Clinton’s campaign coffers. On April 9, the music legend is hosting a special concert to help raise funds for Clinton’s campaign. Elton and Hillary: One Night Only is taking place at Radio City Music Hall in New York. This will be John’s first solo concert at the venue in eight years, and seats are filling up quickly.

As November approaches, we hope to see more out celebrities play a vocal role in talking about the issues facing our community this election season. 

Damon Romine is Director of Entertainment Media

With the manner in which media follow and speculate about the presidential campaigns, the real issues that concern voters in the 2008 election can often be overlooked.  To help remedy this problem, CNN Newsroom’s Election Center has been discussing the importance of this election for a diverse range of Americans. On April 1, CNN featured openly gay Latina radio host Fay Carmona, who spoke about the parallels between the concerns of Latino voters and LGBT voters.  “It’s funny enough that Latinos and gays don't really know they’re fighting for the same thing,” Carmona said. “They want equal rights. They want health care for their partners.”  We look forward to seeing CNN spotlight more people like Carmona who can draw connections between the challenges faced by diverse communities and the impact of the election on their lives.

Cindi Creager is Director of National News