Hillary Clinton continues to court the gay vote in Pennsylvania.
As the race tightens, the Senator sat down with Philadelphia Gay News, whose Mark Segal and Sarah Blazucki tag teamed the shit out of the Senator. Yes, they addresses civil unions and the military, but they also delved into typically unchartered territory, such as immigration reform for same-sex couples and altering America’s foreign policy with homophobic nations like Iran. Said Clinton:
I would be very strongly outspoken about this and it would be part of American foreign policy. There are a number of gross human-rights abuses that countries engage in with whom we have relations and we have to be really vigilant and outspoken in our total repudiation of those kinds of actions and do everything we can, including using our leverage on matters such as aid, to change the behavior so we can try to prevent such atrocities from happening.
Those are commendable comments, but the Democrats best remember that our own State Department still treats gays differently, which will need to be remedied if our government’s going to effectively counter anti-queer countries.
Leland Frances
Most telling quote from article:
“PGN invited both Clinton and Obama, as well as presumptive Republican candidate John McCain, to speak with us. Only Clinton granted an interview.”
This is at least the fourth major gay medium that Obama has refused to interview with while Sen. Clinton agreed. Others: LOGO News, “The Washington Blade,” and Ohio’s “Gay Peoples Chronicle” right before their primary.
Eric Resnick, reporter for the Ohio paper, and the one who interviewed Sen. Clinton, wrote about his treatement by the Obama camp:
“Occasionally, the stories behind what went into reporting the news are as informative as the news. This is one of those times. Additionally, the stakes are high, and the LGBT community needs to have discussions like these before the result, not after.
Immediately following the February 18 Wisconsin presidential primary, I began, on behalf of the Gay People’s Chronicle, to work on getting interviews with Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. …
By Friday, about the time it would take for them to figure out the New Jersey report [on civil unions] contradicts their candidate, the Obama campaign stopped returning my calls. When I was lucky enough to reach press staff, they were very quick to tell me they didn’t think they could work an interview into the candidate’s schedule.
This is a good time to be clear. I am not in either candidate’s camp. I supported and voted for Dennis Kucinich. I was elected the Kucinich convention delegate in the 16th Congressional District of Ohio.
With Kucinich out of the race, my only dog in the fight is that the LGBT community has the best information with which to make the best choices. As a community, we are not at a point where we can afford fair weather friends. ….
Obama spokespeople pivot to the MLK Day speech as though it settles every debt to the LGBT community, past and future.
In my 12 years as a reporter, I have never experienced anything quite like Obama’s national communication director Robert Gibbs, either.
I wasn’t biting on the crap he tried to feed me, and he got offended.
When I stood there not writing any of it down, Gibbs said to me, “Let me tell you how this works. I talk and you write down what I say.”
“I’ll write down what you say when you answer the question,” I responded, adding that “I’m no campaign’s stenographer.”
Gibbs actually took the pen and pad out of my hands and wrote his own answer!…
Both campaigns knew that talking to me wasn’t going to be like the made for Saturday Night Live performance of Melissa Etheridge on the Logo forum. (This is not an insult to Etheridge. I can’t sing. We should all do what we’re good at.)
Nonetheless, it was Hillary Clinton, with her much longer record of talking to our community, who stepped up to the guillotine, and Obama who refused.
Regardless of what was said, Clinton gets points in my book for her willingness. It is somewhat troubling that it appears that LGBT people are starting to flock to Obama, despite his lack of vetting.
This has nothing to do with Obama. It’s good politics. It has everything to do with the LGBT community. It’s stupid citizenship. We deserve better and we need to demand that candidates at least answer our questions.”
John
I hate her.
Steve
Hillary claims to have had great influence in the policy making behind her husbands administration. He signed DADT and DOMA. IF we believe Hillary, he made those two decisions with Hillary’s advice.
Dishonest, corrupt, and desperate are the nicest words I can think of to describe Hillary. She says whatever she thinks you want to hear, with no intention of delivering on any of those promises.
How Obama will act in office is still an unknown. He talks about “fair”, and “hope”, and “change”. Who knows, he might actually be one of those rare honest politicians. At least we do not already know him to be dishonest and corrupt.
Chuck
PGN publisher, Mark Segal told “The Daily EXAMINER” that “On election day, 3 percent of all votes in Pennsylvania are LGBT votes — and in this election, that percentage is going to be very important.” What?! How did he get that statistic? Most studies show that gays make up around 10% of the population. If you add bisexuals and transexuals to that, I can’t even guess what the percentage would be. Is he trying to say that LGBT’s don’t vote?
Leland Frances
Steve, Obama DOES have a documented track record on what he has DONE re gays not just what he’s promised to do. By their fruits ye shall know them.
1. He SAYS he was fighting for gay rights from Day 1 in the Illinois senate. Yet he was there four YEARS before signing onto a gay rights bill.
2. He SAYS he was a “chief cosponsor” of and “passed” the ILL gay rights billthat is now law. Yet he not only could take five minutes out of his campaign for US Senate to sign onto that bill and wasn’t even still IN the ILL senate when it was voted on.
3. As noted this is the FOURTH major gay media venue that he has refused to answer questions from. So PGN might not have endorsed him. The Wall Street Journal isn’t going to endorse him or any Dem either but do you think he’d refuse an interview with them. And, for the record, he only agreed to be interviewed by “The Advocate” after the desperately needed to go into damage control mode after McClurkingate.
4. Yes, McClurkingate—THE greatest indicator of what the guy who claims he “will never compromise” on gay rights would do in a REAL confrontation with Congress when he will always have his mind on reelection to a second term. Here are some of the voices from then—note just SIX MONTHS AGO not more than a decade ago when things happened that Sen. Clinton has since denounced.
“Rod McCullom, a popular black gay writer and longtime Obama fan, said the fiasco makes him wonder how hard Obama would push for gay equality as president: ‘He folded like a deck of cards. If he is going to fold on the campaign trail, why would we not think he’d fold in the Oval Office?'” – Lesbian syndicated columnist Deb Price.
“I simply don’t believe that Obama would have the same reaction, be just as welcoming, if we were talking about racists or anti-Semites. He wouldn’t say that we’re all one big tent. He would kick the racist or the anti-Semite to the curb. Not to mention, ‘the big tent’ concept traditionally means people who have differing political views, even differing political loyalties (Republican and Democrat). I’ve never heard a politician invoke the big tent to mean racists and their victims. We’re to believe that the fact that Obama, alone among Democratic candidates, is willing to openly welcome bigots into his campaign makes him the best candidate for voters concerned about civil rights. So the best way to promote tolerance is to tolerate and embrace intolerance?” – gay writer John Aravosis, AmericaBlog
“Obama Should Repudiate and Cancel His Gay Bash Tour, and Do It Now. Obama ripped a page straight from the Bush campaign playbook. Obama has hitched his string to McClurkin’s high-flying gay bash kite in part out of religious belief (he purports to be somewhat of an evangelical), in bigger part because he’s falling further and further behind Hillary Clinton with the black vote in South Carolina and everywhere else, and in the biggest part of all because he hopes that what worked for Bush’s reelection will work for him.” – African-American political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Huffington Post
“In the highly competitive race for black evangelical votes in South Carolina, McClurkin just might give Obama the needed edge. However, that edge will come at a cost far greater than having McClurkin at his side. It comes at revealing how Obama is not only a vote-whore, but a race-card user as well. The Obama/McClurkin alliance introduces Obama to McClurkin’s black and white Southern evangelical base, which thinks Obama is neither Christian nor black enough. And many observers are starting to realize just how much of a vote-whore Obama is. Obama is proving that his campaign, marketed as ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ is really based on the audacity of hypocrisy.” – black lesbian minister Irene Monroe
“If a presidential candidate had been caught scheduling a vote-getting tour with a trio of anti-Semites, that candidate would be toast. And even if one is generous enough to ascribe scheduling the tour with the gay-hating gospel singers to lousy staff work, when Obama had the chance to step away from them and cancel their role in the tour, he didn’t do it.
Obama has been a loud god-botherer ever since he announced he was running for president – it’s the reason he’s refused to endorse marriage equality for same-sexers. And the dangers of mixing religion and politics were never more glaring than in this latest episode. Obama’s cynical, vote-seeking gamble that he can pander to Southern bigotry by campaigning with the anti-gay gospel trio while mouthing pro-gay platitudes, and get away with it, shows that he’s just a bloviating empty suit from the Windy City.” – Doug Ireland, Gay City News
5. And a bigger player in the Antigay Industry than McClurkin is Obama’s close personal friend and OTHER spiritual advisor, the Rev. James Meeks. He has been called one of the top “10 leading black religious voices in the antigay movement.†As State Sen. James Meeks he voted AGAINST the gay rights bill in Illinois and later ran for governor on an antigay platform, two of but many attacks on the gay community. If Obama CAN’T CONVERT HIS OWN FRIENDS why should anyone believe he can do any better with antigay members of Congress?
Here’s a video of the unmeek Meeks in full gay hating sail:
http://mfile.akamai.com/12906/wmv/vod.ibsys.com/2006/0327/8289367.200k.asx
Mr C
WAIT A MINUTE LELAND I assume you’re saying that Hillary Clinton isn’t a vote-whore, AND a race-card user as well, or rather a race baiter?????
GET A FUCKING GRIP!
CHICK IS TOAST!