While I'm glad they saw the light, I'd like to point out that according to Washington Blade, this is NOT a "debate".. the candidates will not be together nor will they debate each other.. each will come out alone, say their peace, and leave. Sad. I'd like to have seen a debate.

Of course, this could be why he wasn't invited in the first place….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-WsvQhVmhc

enthusiastic community response = community threatening never to donate money to HRC again

Never let it be said gays have misplaced priorities. My ass!

Do the math. Another ABSURD aspect of this Not A Debate/Not Really A Forum, and further proof that LOGO/MTV have their heads up their collective asses, is that only 90 hour is being allotted for 25-30 million gay Americans to hear their lives directly discussed on television for the first time in history by candidates for President!
Gravel makes 6 candidates that have accepted so far. Richardson will, too, for 7.
Deduct at least 5 minutes for LOGO/MTV promos and program intros ["Good evening. You've never heard of me but my name is Joe Solmonese and I am God blah blah blah."]. and the questioning of each candidate separately [NB: they will NOT be on the stage at the same time], and another 5 minutes for the close ["You probably still don't know who I am but I want to thank the candidates and LOGO and MTV and my proctologist and give a shout out to all my homos er homeys at the Human Rights Champagne fund blah blah blah"]. Deduct at least another five minutes [and that’s being generous] for candidates moving on and off stage as they will appear individually. That leaves 75 minutes which means just a little over 10 minutes total for each candidate’s time on stage.
How many questions for each or how they’ll be asked is the unknown at this point. But let’s assume the minimum: one 30 second question per candidate, plus hellos and goodbyes, another 30 seconds. Now we’re down to 9 minutes per candidate. I count at least 8 important issues affecting the gay community: marriage/civil unions, protecting gay kids in school, DADT, ENDA, the Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill, gay adoption, gay immigration rights, and AIDS prevention and care. That means there’s, at best, just over ONE MINUTE per candidate per issue! But, hey, we didn’t want to hurt Gravel’s feelings. That's what was most important here.

Leland et al - this has nothing to do with "hurting Gravel's feelings." It's about getting our issues actually DISCUSSED and not simply putting on a Showbiz Show displaying HRC's starfucker candidates. Thank god HRC had the good sense (meaning fear of loss of $) to allow Gravel in.

[...] HRC has reversed its decision to exclude the Senator. He's in. More at PageOneQ and Queerty. [...]

I've been hanging back, but it's time to take a stand. The campaign should be made into a reality competition, where all the candidates are locked in a house together with cameras everywhere, then they have to swap campaigns, then ride along with cops, and the viewers, uh, voters have to phone in to an 888 number to vote as many times as they can speed dial in two hours.

So do they now have to invite Ron Paul?

I'm far to the left, honest, but I have a hard time dealing with most of our current crop (Gravel, Kucinich, Nader, Michael Moore).

Here's two links for Gravel. The first is a webcast he did in some kid's dorm room. It's pleasant, & he seems like a nice and honest guy, but it's all a bit simple.

That's the nice link. The second is for the National Initiative that he pushes - a constitutional amendment to create a "Legislature of the People". This would be the not nice link - if it weren't fringe it would be frightening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxBs4hOXyzo
http://nationalinitiative.us/index.htm

doh! The point of that last post & link, of course, that if his proposal for a "People's Legislature" actually happened every minority in this country could watch their rights fly straight out the window.

I have a low tolerance for fools. I'd like to see the top 3 be called to account for some of their inconsistencies. I sincerely hope that this guy also gets called to account for inconsistencies in his views*.

(* yeah, I'm STILL pissed at how the left coddled Nader. I'm not giving any contender a free pass this round.)

Very cool for the HRC.

This is a big step forward when they begin to listen to the community they serve. The internet is a good way to gage how the community is feeling about a particular subject. They did not have this tool 10 years ago.

They should be thrilled with it now.

Thanks HRC.

Jack Jett
http://www.jackejett.com

It's time for the people to take HRC back. They use our donations for their blackberries and other items that many queers can't afford.