With Tuesday’s primaries just around the corner, Sen. Barack
Obama recently did his first interview for a local North Carolina LGBT outlet.
In his interview
with Q-Notes, Obama highlighted his outreach to the community in Pennsylvania and his
“longstanding commitment to LGBT equality.” Q-Notes also asked Obama’s advisor,
Eric Stern, if Obama would ever be willing to apologize for anti-gay statements
made by Donnie McClurkin while he stumped for the presidential candidate in South Carolina. Stern
responded by saying that Obama was clear that he disagrees with McClurkin’s
views.
Indiana’s
LGBT community pulled together to interview the presidential hopefuls this week
too. Reality Magazine, along with bloomingOUT radio, The Bloomington Beacon, The
Letter, LGBT statewide advocacy organization Indiana Equality and The
Word, all submitted questions for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Obama. Northeast Indiana LGBT outlet Reality Magazine published
the interviews. Both candidates addressed the same set of questions, which
consisted almost entirely of their stances on pending and existing
legislation, such as the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and hate crimes
protections. The interviews were lengthy, but gave little insight that LGBT
folks interested in either candidate probably hadn’t heard before.
When Obama took out large-scale
advertisements in Ohio and Texas’ LGBT press earlier this year, the
community took notice. Though The Advocate ran a short story announcing
the Indiana and North Carolina interviews, it has not hit
the LGBT blogs and news sites the way Obama and Clinton’s previous
LGBT outreach efforts have. Despite the fact that these new interviews have
not had the same widespread impact, it’s commendable that both candidates are
continuing to work to make sure that their stances on LGBT issues are reaching
stakeholders.
Paul
Karr is the Director of Media Field Strategy
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