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 Editorials | Issues | August 2007 
US Democrat Nominees Face Gays’ Questions
 Michael R. Blood - Associated Press
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 |  | If we have a situation in which civil unions are fully enforced, are widely recognized, people have civil rights under the law, then my sense is that’s enormous progress.
- Barack Obama |  | |
Los Angeles — Democratic presidential contenders faced pointed questions on gay marriage and the basis for sexual orientation in a forum that forced candidates to confront politically touchy issues that have vexed a nation.
Former Senator John Edwards found himself discussing whether he is comfortable around gay people — he said he is. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson appeared to struggle with a question about why people become gay or lesbian. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton ended up defending the record of her husband, former President Clinton, on gay rights.
“We certainly didn’t get as much done as I would have liked,” the New York senator said. “But there was a lot of honest effort.”
Six of the eight Democratic candidates answered questions last week on gay rights at the two-hour forum co-sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group active in Democratic politics, and Logo, a gay-oriented cable TV channel that aired the forum live.
Organizers said it marked the first time that major presidential candidates appeared on TV specifically to address gay issues. The candidates appeared one at a time in an upholstered chair on a Hollywood studio set and took questions from a panel that included singer Melissa Etheridge.
The candidates underscored differences with Republicans on gay and lesbian rights, but leading candidates also faced aggressive questioning on their reluctance to embrace marriage for same-sex couples.
All of the Democratic candidates support a federal ban on anti-gay job discrimination, want to repeal 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.
A majority of Americans oppose nationwide recognition of same-sex marriage and only two of the Democrats support it — former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel and Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, both longshots for the nomination.
Barack Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ, which supports gay marriage, but Obama has yet to go that far.
“If we have a situation in which civil unions are fully enforced, are widely recognized, people have civil rights under the law, then my sense is that’s enormous progress,” the Illinois senator said.
In a campaign dominated by the Iraq war and terrorism, the forum provided unusually probing talk about issues that alternately touched on questions of tolerance, morality and religion.
Clinton said she made a mistake in March when she steered around a question on whether homosexuality was immoral. She was asked about it after General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he considered homosexual acts immoral and similar to adultery. He later said he should have not expressed his personal views. Clinton later issued a statement saying she did not think being gay was immoral.
“It was a mistake,” Clinton said. “I should have put it in a broader context.”
Clinton was cheered by the crowd when she alluded to the prospect for change at the White House in the 2008 election. Edwards argued that Democrats must speak out against discrimination coming from the Republican right wing.
Unless you speak out against intolerance, it becomes “OK for the Republicans in their politics to divide America and use hate-mongering to separate us,” Edwards said.
Etheridge, speaking to Edwards, said she had heard he once said he felt uncomfortable around gay people — an assertion contained in longtime political strategist Bob Shrum’s book “No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner.”
“I’m perfectly comfortable,” Edwards said. “I know where it came from. It came from a political consultant. And he’s just wrong.”
Logo, available in about 27 million homes, wanted to hold a second forum for Republican candidates but Republican front-runners showed no interest, channel officials said. |
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