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Over the past few months, cable and network news programs have been asking why Sen. John McCain’s campaign pursued the endorsement of anti-gay televangelist John Hagee. Media scrutiny of the Rev. Hagee reached a wider audience on ABC’s popular daytime talk show The View on April 30. During a heated exchange between co-hosts Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck about the political relevance of Sen. Barack Obama’s relationship with controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright, Behar quoted the Rev. Hagee’s statement that God’s anger at
After giving the audience the opportunity to hear the Rev. Hagee’s incendiary quote word for word, Behar questioned why his relationship to Sen. McCain hasn’t received the same attention and criticism as the Rev. Wright’s relationship to Sen. Obama. Though the hosts of The View often engage in political debates, this i
s the first time that involved discussion of the Rev. Hagee’s anti-gay statement has taken place on a daytime TV talk show.
The conversation on The View brought close scrutiny of Hagee’s comments to a much broader audience, and prompted Alan Colmes to ask guest pundits on the April 30 episode of Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes –which featured a clip from The View—to respond to the same issues that Behar addressed. In this unique election climate, it’s not uncommon for the lines between hard news and entertainment to be increasingly blurred, underscoring the degree to which a wider variety of media outlets are shaping public perception of all of the candidates.
Cindi Creager is Director of National News
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 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
Last week, an episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC included a clip from Sen. Barack Obama’s college tour, which had stopped at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. A student stood up and asked Obama, “Hi, Senator Obama. My name is David Bernett and I just have a question for you, and that is where do you stand on gay marriage?”
Young people are at the front lines, in communities and in the media, addressing the issues faced by the LGBT community, often because they’re further along than the rest of the country. Surveys and polls support this fact – including the 2006 Hamilton College Youth Hot Button Issues Poll, which showed that three quarters of that year’s high school seniors favor legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships, whether as marriages or civil unions. This progress speaks to the work of our movement, the increased visibility of our community at every level, and the impact it’s had on young people all over the country.
And it’s because young people are passionate about the LGBT community that Obama’s response about marriage got time on Hardball above all the other important issues facing our country today. Though Obama does not support marriage for gay and lesbian couples, he did voice his support for civil unions, and spoke out about the importance of ensuring that couples are able to take care of each other, especially in moments of crisis. The inclusion of his response highlights the role that young people will continue to play in moving our issues forward in this election cycle and in upcoming election cycles - and the importance of telling our stories to ensure that our issues stay on the table.
Rashad Robinson is Senior Director of Media Programs
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
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
As election season progresses, LGBT websites and blogs are influencing the way that media cover the presidential campaigns in unprecedented ways. On the March 31 broadcast of Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt sought to highlight divisions amongst Barack Obama’s supporters by referencing an article on GayWired.com that raised concerns about Obama’s connection to anti-gay pastor and superdelegate James Meeks.
While Hewitt’s reference to an article in the LGBT media is significant, it’s also important to note his disappointing analysis of it. When host Alan Colmes asked him why John McCain shouldn’t receive equal scrutiny for his connection to anti-gay televangelist Rod Parsley, Hewitt distanced himself from concerns raised by GayWired, saying: “It’s not my thought. It’s the gay people’s fault.” Unfortunately, after referencing the valid questions about the relationships between presidential candidates and anti-gay leaders, Hewitt chose to blame the LGBT media for bringing them up rather than to thoughtfully address their implications. Nonetheless, it is clear that the voices in the LGBT media are echoing through our national political coverage, even in unexpected places.
Cindi Creager is Director of National News
Although the media is following every twist and turn of the campaigns of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, the work of candidates to reach out to the LGBT media and to seek LGBT endorsements has yet to be addressed by many mainstream reporters, despite the unique role that LGBT movement leaders and LGBT media have had during this campaign season.
Recently, Obama's campaign announced that a diverse group of prominent LGBT leaders and advocates has publicly endorsed him. The new group of 40 supporters includes transgender advocates Donna Rose (who is also on the GLAAD Board of Directors) and Pauline Park, GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings, actor Wilson Cruz, Missouri State Representative Jeanette Mott Oxford, and Pride at Work (AFL-CIO) Executive Director Jeremy Bishop. The Advocate reported that one of the key issues that motivated many LGBT Democrats to support Obama over Clinton is his support for a full repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). As opposed to Obama, Clinton would still allow states to determine their own marriage laws by only repealing the part of DOMA that prohibits federal recognition of marriage for gay and lesbian people.
It's a novel trend in an election year for a major presidential candidate to publicly reach out to LGBT voters. Many LGBT blogs and publications have already discussed the current work of the Obama campaign to mobilize the LGBT community by courting LGBT endorsements and by specifically advertising in the LGBT media. Clinton's campaign has taken similar steps to pursue LGBT voters, including the Super Tuesday eve release of a "Message to LGBT Americans" proclaiming: "America deserves a President . . . who values and respects all Americans and treats all Americans equally no matter who they are or who they love. I want to be that President. I want to be your President."
As the mainstream media continues to cover the many unprecedented aspects of the 2008 election, it will be encouraging to see journalists take note of the innovative work of candidates to address the diverse concerns of LGBT Americans and to actively seek their votes.
Cindi Creager is the Director of National News.
As influential religious and political figures endorse presidential candidates, the media have begun to examine how their statements about different constituencies square with the candidate’s political platform. San Antonio televangelist John Hagee's (right) recent backing of John McCain led journalists to scrutinize Hagee's incendiary anti-gay and anti-Catholic comments. On The Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive's "On Faith" website, writer Claire Hoffman questioned whether McCain's proud association with Hagee – who had asserted that God's anger at an upcoming New Orleans gay pride parade caused Hurricane Katrina – reflected the Republican candidate's aspiration to unite a diverse coalition of voters.Similarly citing Hagee's offensive remarks about gay people and Catholics, both MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann and the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric recently raised questions about McCain's uncritical acceptance of Hagee's endorsement. If the media continue to responsibly examine the anti-gay background of presidential endorsers, they will look into McCain's recent appearance with and praise for Ohio televangelist Rod Parsley. Parsley, like Hagee, is known for his espousal of virulently anti-gay rhetoric.
This is not the first time the media has questioned the association of anti-gay figures with presidential hopefuls. Last fall, Donnie McClurkin, a conservative minister and supporter of the degayification attempts of so-called “ex-gay” activists, took part in South Carolina rallies for Democratic candidate Barack Obama. After media brought to light McClurkin's anti-gay background and scrutinized it in the context of Obama's inclusive political platform, Obama publicly stated that he "strongly disagrees" with the preacher.
It is encouraging that the media are continuing to ask whether the anti-gay views of presidential endorsers conflict with candidates' promises to build inclusive and unifying political campaigns.
Cindi Creager is the Director of National News
With the much anticipated Ohio and Texas primaries just one day away, the candidates for the Democratic nomination have been reaching out to the LGBT community as they campaign. Last week, Senator Barack Obama made news with his paid advertisements in LGBT press outlets in Ohio and Texas and his open letter to the LGBT community. On February 27th, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton held a conference call on LGBT issues, and answered questions for reporters from several LGBT press outlets, including the Texas-based Dallas Voice, the Ohio-based Outlook Weekly and Gay People’s Chronicle. She has also conducted interviews with other LGBT outlets, including The Advocate, Logo and The Washington Blade, and published a “Message to LGBT Americans” on OurChart.com. “Let me tell you what I have been telling voters across America. I am fully committed to the fair and equal treatment of LGBT Americans,” she wrote in that posting. Given her media outreach, it will be interesting to see how Clinton’s efforts play in tomorrow’s primaries – especially in the large gay communities of Dallas and Houston, and in Ohio, which has the country’s sixth largest LGBT community. While Clinton has made serious efforts to reach out to LGBT voters, Obama has seemingly received more media coverage – fairly or not – for his efforts, especially from his recently published open letter (some bloggers have gone so far as to accuse him of stealing from her playbook). We will find out tomorrow how all this plays out with LGBT voters in Texas and Ohio. One thing is for sure: both Democratic candidates are reaching out to the community in an active way we have never seen before in a presidential election.
Paul Karr is the Director of Media Field Strategy
Obama has also published an open letter to the LGBT community, which blogs have reported will be reprinted as an op-ed in Ohio LGBT newspapers. In his letter, Obama outlined his work for and with the LGBT community in the past, present and future. With various print and online outlets picking up Obama’s letter, the spotlight is once again on the LGBT community. It seemed early on that all of the Democratic candidates had similar stances on the issues: civil unions are okay, but marriage for gay and lesbian couples is too much; 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' should be repealed, and people should not face discrimination on the job. These positions were pioneering in many ways, but Obama is now attempting to break out and present himself as the gay-friendly candidate. He cites pro-LGBT co-sponsored Illinois legislation and talks about plans to fund HIV prevention programs and ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Just yesterday, he told a group of supporters at a rally in Beaumont, Texas, “I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian.”
It will be interesting to see if Obama’s ads and op-ed are successful in making inroads into the community, especially considering that LGBT voters have traditionally been identified as staunch supporters of the Clintons. Early in the campaign season, a poll by Hunter College found that 63 percent of lesbian, gay and bisexual likely voters supported Clinton. But part of Obama’s strategy has been to go after Hillary’s base rather than just focusing on independent and undecided voters. Clinton got a solid majority of the gay vote in New York and California, but Obama has had a string of impressive wins since Super Tuesday and other demographic groups that have traditionally supported Clinton, including women, have swung to Obama in recent primaries. The Federal Elections Committee confirmed that Obama has a small advantage, with folks in Texas’ gay neighborhoods split at 52 and 48 percent. The March 4 primaries will be an interesting measure of whether or not Senator Obama’s outreach to the LGBT community through the media will tip the scales in his favor.
Read Obama’s letter (PDF).
Paul Karr is the Director of Media Field Strategy
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