Obama racks up gay papers' support

[Hope And Change]

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Photo: Jane Philomen Cleland


Online extra: Obama racks up gay papers' support


Published 01/31/2008

by Matthew S. Bajko
[e-mail]

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, racked up endorsements from four gay papers on both coasts this week as he heads into a showdown against New York Senator Hillary Clinton on Super Tuesday next week.

Residents in 22 states, including the gay voter rich states of California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois and New York, will vote in the February 5 primaries. The outcome of the various contests will either declare a winner in the race or send the candidates scrambling to find enough delegates in the remaining primaries to secure the nomination.

Obama received the biggest boost in the hunt for LGBT voters when papers in Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta all endorsed his campaign. Lining up behind the first African American to have a serious chance of being elected president were, respectively, In Newsweekly, Gay City News, the Bay Times, and Southern Voice.

As Southern Voice editor Laura Douglas-Brown sees it, "on gay issues, Barack is best" due to his backing a full repeal of the Defense on Marriage Act. Clinton has advocated for only partial repeal of the anti-gay bill her husband signed into law.

"If Obama is elected president, his principled willingness to advocate full repeal of DOMA – as opposed to Clinton's cautious pragmatism – will move the bar of gay rights farther forward, regardless of whether the actual repeal is accomplished under his tenure," wrote Douglas-Brown.

In San Jose, Obama also won the straw poll at the Tuesday, January 29 LGBT presidential forum hosted by the Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club and the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center. Of the 40-plus audience members, 41 percent picked Obama, while 28 percent went with former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who dropped out of the race the next day. Clinton received 25 percent of the vote.

more...

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2674

[wndycty]

1. What do we make of the LGBT media support in light of the McClurkin incident?

Is that it is being viewed as a major lapse in judgement, but that the McClurkin incident should not overshadow Obama's overall record on LGBT issues?

[neutron]

11. What do we make of the Nuclear Power Scandel in today's NYT?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/us/politics/03exelon.html?ex=1359694800&en=f2cec53f8b5de3bc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[wndycty]

14. Nice change of subject

:kick:

[UALRBSofL]

13. True, people are not informed

Following "Blind Faith" is not a logical way of thinking. I suppose they didn't scrutinize them enough on there policy on GLBT or what they have worked on for GLBT's in the past.

[Lucinda]

24. Who owns the papers? If they are all owner operated, its a lot differrent

than if they are part of a big group.

[HockeyMom]

2. I will have to tell my daughter this

She had asked me who would be better for gay rights.

[maddiejoan]

7. Tell your daughter

that it's Hillary.

[LostinVA]

23. Yep

[La Lioness Priyanka]

18. without a doubt its hillary

[Iceburg]

27. I just got off a cruise ship carrying 1800 women

95% of them being lesbians, age spectrum 20-85 years, with an average age of 40-50.

Kate Clinton (a well known lesbian comic) took a straw poll at one of her performances -- approx 90% were Hill supporters. Of the 1800 women present only 3 declared them selves to be Republican supporters (oooh--that was brave in that crowd!:-)

Obama had no track record with the gay community before 2007 and when he did try to establish one it was a flop of the highest order. Obama insulted/hurt the gay community profoundly when he trotted once gay-but-now-saved-gay-curing preacher McClurkin around with him on tour.

Hillary on the otherhand has worked tirelessly over the past 3 decades to speak for the disenfranchised and for that we shall reward her with our vote.

[jakem]

3. wow.

i guess mcclurkin was a blip in significance after all.

[wndycty]

4. Yes it shows how DU is so out of touch with the real world

:kick:

[ugdude]

6. hillary supporters overplay everything (ie, handshake)

...UNLESS its about hillarys iraq vote. then its time we should move on.

What hypocrites.

[readmoreoften]

25. Then fucking go away if "DU" is "out of touch" with the "real" world.

And by "real" you apparently mean mindless, brainwashed, and barely paying attention...

[Thrill]

9. That guy is only an issue on DU

[bigtree]

5. The former first lady, meanwhile, added endorsements this week

. . . from San Diego's Gay and Lesbian Times and the Web site Gay Wired to the nod she received from the Washington Blade in late December.

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2674

[ugdude]

8. Seems like DU blew up mcclurkin for no reason. Obama is more pro-gay than hillary

She refuses to repeal DOMA, she doesnt care about the gays. I WANT DOMA GONE.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

19. maybe you need to reeducate yourself about the context of doma

and what would have happened had their been no doma

[maximusveritas]

21. So why does Hillary only want a partial repeal?

I don't understand that.

[closeupready]

22. I don't think it was blown up for no reason. It was very offensive.

We expressed our anger, he heard (I believe), and for many of us, it's water under the bridge. Some people will never get over it, and they are entitled to their feelings.

[JimGinPA]

10. She also found some Kennedy's to endorse her...

:sarcasm:

[ugdude]

12. Hahaha

[hulklogan]

15. I don't think this means Obama is genuinely better on LGBT issues than any other candidate

It could mean that some LGBT voters have realized that neither Hillary nor Barack really gives a shit, so they're voting on other issues.

Sad, really.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. Endorsements are worthless

Gay papers I don't read in cities I don't live in, don't impact me. I vote next month. McClurkin is in fact an issue for me. I grew up in church and I know what he is saying and what it means, most don't. In fact, I'm not sure Obama even understands McClurkin. That is the one point in Obama's favor.
For me, it is not simply a gay issue, it is also a church issue and I did not like the implication that churchs of one race are more homophobic than others, or more universally so. It is not the case. Chruchs are often homophobic, black, white, asian. Many are also not that way.
Obama's own home chruch Trinity UCC is very gay inclusinve and even flies the rainbow flag. So I'm back and forth on Obama on these issues. When he speaks, he usually uses a loaded lexicon and so his words do not carry the impact with me that they do with those who don't know the Exodus lingo. That is just a statment of fact. The last few days his language has reflected more clarity on the subject and that pleases me.
Many want to dismiss the issue but it is in fact a large roadblock for many people. I'm one of those people. I backed Obama prior to the McClurkin preaching, but after that whole 'pray you are delivered by God' sermon, it has been very difficult for me to take Obama at his word on anything. It is very personal to me, as I have spent a bit of time and energy over the last two decades on the exact issue of homophobia in the chruch and the Gospel world. I knew all about all of the players long before Obama, even before McClurkin sang for Bush in 2004. Been in that world and I know the nuance, I know the code speak, and I know the suffering that does in fact result from the sort of sermonizing Obama hosted.
So I'm not there with them yet, and may not be. We'll see. As I said the choice of words on Obama's part is starting to be free of the 'love the sinner' lexicon, and that is very important to me. I do not seek love from a politician, nor an 'embrace', just acceptance and equality, perhaps some respect. The words do matter.
I'll see what happens over the next month or so.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Occam Bandage]

20. But that can't be! What with the DU flamewars I've been in, in which

Hillary supporters assured me that, against my experience, against the evidence, against all polling, and against all reality, gay people all refused to ever support Barack Obama...they couldn't have been, er, exaggerating, could they?

[Proud2BAmurkin]

26. It will be the first ones he sends up the river. Oblurkin's got no love for the gay