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Loading ...Besen: A national gay vote needed for Obama
In 1992, the gay and lesbian community galvanized around Bill Clinton in what is now seen as the first “national gay vote.” The stark contrast between Clinton and the rabidly homophobic GOP, which declared a culture war at its Houston convention, was the reason for this unified support.
This year offers a similar disparity between the parties. The Democrats proved at their Denver convention to be GLBT supportive while the GOP in Minneapolis will most likely rail against equality for gays in their effort to bring home their socially conservative base.It was made clear by the major Democratic stars –Ted Kennedy, Hillary and Bill Clinton and Barak Obama — that we, the GLBT community, are included in their vision for America. In Minneapolis, I suspect the few references to the existence of GLBT people will be as a threat to the family, with some speakers explicitly calling for a federal Constitutional Amendment to prohibit equal marriage rights. It is unfathomable that a gay person – except the most delusional – would be comfortable voting for such a party, no less trolling and tripping over conservatives in the convention hall.
McCain’s first nod to the conservatives came when he plucked a tyro from the tundra to serve as his gunning mate, er, running mate. Alaska’s moose stew-loving governor, Sarah Palin, energized social conservatives who quickly aborted their ostensible concerns about national security for their narrow desire to secure the termination of Roe v. Wade. They were so thrilled to have Palin on the ticket, that the Family Research Council excused her teenage daughter, Bristol, for her out of wedlock pregnancy. Imagine the uproar from these Moral Majority types if this had instead been Chelsea Clinton!
Like a comedy sketch, John McCain’s wife, Cindy, said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, that the inexperienced Palin was qualified to handle a resurgent Russia because, “Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia.” Isn’t that a bit like saying I’m an expert on Cuba because I grew up in Miami?
If Palin’s resume were any thinner, it could be a Vogue runway model. Prior to her two-year stint as Alaska’s governor, Palin was the mayor of Wasilla, an Anchorage suburb with 7,000 residents – which is probably less than the number of people who live on my block in Brooklyn.
Considering McCain is 72 and has had past health issues, Palin was a reckless and potentially ruinous choice. McCain’s main appeal was his experience, but elevating Palin makes it infinitely more difficult for McCain to credibly make this argument.
Let’s be honest, this is tokenism and selecting Palin as a substitute for Clinton is reminiscent of President George H.W. Bush nominating Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court replacement for the legendary Thurgood Marshall.
This pander pick will win over few Clinton supporters following her eloquent, unifying speech in Denver. It is ludicrous to think that these educated women will be enthusiastic about Palin, who is anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-environment and who even supported arch conservative Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign. Indeed, Buchanan told Chris Matthews on Hardball that Palin was a “brigader for me in 1996.”
Unfortunately, I still get a lot of e-mail from misinformed gay people who think that John McCain and Barack Obama have the same record on GLBT issues simply because they both oppose allowing gay people to marry. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Obama is light years ahead on our issues and a vote for McCain is a tragic mistake that will usher in four more years of discrimination and humiliation. I suggest those in doubt visit a new website, “LGBT For Obama,” that highlights the superiority of the democratic nominee’s record.
In November, we can wake up to a new day where job discrimination is outlawed, openly gay soldiers are able to serve our nation with the dignity they deserve, GLBT people are finally included in hate crime laws, our families are offered a measure of protection and America will have a moderate Supreme Court for years to come.
Or, we can rise to a dark November morning that ushers in four more ugly years of persecution, right wing demagogues on the president’s speed dial, invisibility for our families, Arabic translators kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation and a retrograde and a reactionary Supreme Court that sets our movement back decades.
The GLBT community needs to unify and rally around the Obama campaign as we did for Clinton in 1992, or we will live in a regime that rules like its 1892. The choice for the future is clear and stark. We must mobilize in swing states and win or the GOP will be taking gratuitous swings at our families for the next four years.
WTF is wrong with you fellow Gays….Get off your asses..and VOTE OBAMA!!! Sure he aint perfect…but DO NOT waste your vote on a 3rd party..OBAMA NEEDS ALL our votes….a vote for OBAMA is a vote for America to get out of this DARK hole we’ve been in for 8yrs….WISE UP,DON’T BE STUPID!!!!!
Being that I am in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Back in 2004 when that homophobic loser John Kerry won the nomination, there was a lot of talk about him adding John McCain to his ticket. Back then, Democrats, who have selective and partisan memories, were actually into having a “national unity ticket”. In 2000, that evil right-wing zionist orthodox homophobe Joe Lieberman was on the ticket with Al Gore. Both in 2000 and in 2004, Democrats kept shoving conservatives down our throat in the name of electability. And both times, Democrats lost big time. The only reason that everyone hates McCain right now, is because he’s the Republican nominee. They love Obama, but very very few people know anything about his platform and positions. Now, while I hate McCain, I do so based on the fact that I can’t stand his positions. I will likewise not consider voting for Obama based on his positions and platform. I believe also, that more people are voting for Obama not because they agree with his positions and platform but because they hate Bush. Well in 2009 Bush is gone, but if you’re going to vote in 2008, you should vote on what you believe, what you want for this country, in a nutshell vote FOR someone, not AGAINST someone else. I keep hearing people telling people who vote Libertarian, Green, Independent that their candidates have no chance of winning, that is a lie. Independents and third party candidates have won all across this country, in fact the GOP started off as a third party in the 1840s. Also, in our first-past-post system, in a race between 5-10 people, all a candidate needs to do is get more votes than any one else. If a Democrat gets 20%, a Republican gets 20.1%, a Libertarian gets 21%, a Green gets 22%, a “Constitutionalist” gets 17% and independents get the rest, then the Green candidate wins the Presidency.
If Democrats and Republicans want to have a two way race, then they need to support run-off elections like in Louisiana and France. As long as the choice to vote for someone other than a Democrat or a Republican exists, as it should, both Democrats and Republicans should NOT be shocked when people exercise their constitutional right to vote for whom reflects their values and addresses their issues satisfactorily.
Marriage equality has been on our radar for more than 15 years. Does anyone remember Hawaii in 1993?
Incremental progress is nothing more than the tranquilizing drug of gradualism, so often preached against by the likes of Martin Luther King. We’re not progressing at all, developing countries like Uruguay, Mexico and South Africa are moving ahead of us in gay and lesbian rights, yet stupid people still use the ” incremental progress” mantra.
One of the biggest hopes that I have, is that the politics of “tranquilizing gradualism” dies along with Obama’s failed campaign. The reason we have marriage equality in Massachusetts is because we didn’t compromise, we didn’t accept watered down civil rights in the form of civil unions. We didn’t compromise with people just to get them elected for a few nice words in an acceptance speech. The road to absolute equality is harder, and it requires REAL sacrifice. But if we want the easy way out, we’ll never have real equality. If Obama fails this time, but gets his act together in 2012, maybe then I will consider maybe possibly thinking about voting for him, maybe. However, till the day Obama makes a STRONG and forceful endorsement of marriage equality, coast to coast, border to border I will never consider voting for him, nor do I have any shred of respect for him.
I was going to comment on the intellectual thinking about the drivel you have penned on this website, but others have already done that. As a gay man I am offended that I should cast my vote for a man such as Obama, a created old school politician who is truly the king with no clothes, in other words he actually believes what people say about him. I am not all that sure McCain is that much better, but if I have to choose between character and a phantom menace I will choose character all the time. I guess Mark Twain said it best when he said ‘be careful what you pray for, you might get it.’
To say that “we won the right to marry in Massachusetts” with Mitt Romney (R) in office is a gross simplification of what really happened here, and it disrespects a lot of hard work done by people working within the mainstream political process in this state. We poured money into the coffers of those who voted for us (most of them Democrat) and worked hard for their re-election, we worked hard to defeat a number of those who voted against us (mostly by running Democrats who were pro-marriage), we brought our families into the offices of legislators off and on for several years to “prove” that we have families “pretty much like yours,” and we had a Democratic governor, Democratic Senate President, and Democratic House Speaker lobby very, very, VERY hard to defeat the anti-marriage amendment. (We came very close to losing that vote. The extra lobbying *mattered*, and Romney never would have lobbied for us…he actively lobbied AGAINST us.)
We in MA bit the bullet, engaged in mainstream party politics, and did a TON of grunt work to protect marriage rights here. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was very satisfying in the end.
It pains me to hear gay people on the national level being so unwilling to work hard for incremental progress, stick stubbornly to one measuring stick (”he’s against marriage!”) that wasn’t even on anyone’s minds as early as six years ago, and shoot themselves in the foot by abandoning goals that have been languishing for decades (ENDA). This isn’t the time for such pettiness.
Let’s help Obama, because he’s one piece of the puzzle that will help us (we need an electable person who is willing to sign anti-discrimination legislation into law…a Libertarian won’t get elected, and a Republican won’t do it). Let’s keep working on marriage rights on the state level. Then, eventually, let’s start holding people’s feet to the fire on gay marriage. First things first!
This is so do-able, people….
Yes, that’s right – vote for someone with 0% chance of winning (therefore, by default – assisting McSame). This isn’t a pricipled approach, it’s a self-defeating one. ALL politics are INCREMENTAL – hold fast to your pie-in-the-sky “dreams” and LOSE or gain what you can in pursuit of your larger goals down the road. One will continue to consistently lose and the other will win in time. We did not go from “Stonewall” to Gay Marriage as an issue overnight – but rather, we worked hard over nearly 4 decades to slowly move our goals forward. It was only WHEN things got pushed too hard and too fast that they BACKFIRED. It’s time to learn from those mistakes. An incremntal gain is nonetheless a gain. An idealistic loss is still a LOSS.
The comparison to clinton is very apt.
Clinton gave us Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
Prior to that the military was honest and said it did not want Gay people. Now it says gay people are welcome as long as they are completely in the closet, and totally chaste.
The same position that led me to abandon the Catholic Church.
I prefer outright rejection to being told i should go back in the closet.
Personally, I think that Obama is full of it. I very seriously doubt anything will get done about the issues he addresses. Politicians lie, and I think we’re getting our hopes up.
Barack Hussein McBama and John McBush O’Ocain both oppose,, let me repeat that, BOTH OPPOSE marriage equality. Marriage equality is not a single issue, but every possible issue effected by marital status rolled into one. Also, marriage is such a basic, common and inalienable human right that it’s not even written down. People on death row have the right to marry, if they’re straight of course. Why the h*ll do we even continue to fathom supporting anyone who puts gay and lesbian couples beneath someone on death row?!?! As far as I am concerned Barack Hussein McBama and John McSame-McBush-O’Cain are no different, both are bigots, its just one is far more honest about it, while the other one is more likely to mask his disdain for us.
Also, in the United States we have a first-past-post system. This means that we have far more than just two choices, and as long as someone gets more than all the rest in an open election, they win. If Democrats want gay votes they have to work for them like everyone else, stop pandering and playing on our fears. Gay people need allies, yes, but we’re more than capable of winning on our own, even when Republicans are in office. We won marriage equality in Massachusetts when Mitt Romney was in office and Californians won marriage equality with Schwarzenegger in office. Democrats need us far far far more than we need them, And if they want us on board, they need to make a principled and strong step of supporting marriage equality 100%. If they’re incapable of doing that, I will not vote for a single one. And I encourage each and every gay and lesbian American to do the same. Our issues are just as important as anyone else, we’re not just another special interest, we’re human beings entitled to equal rights. Marriage effects everything from social security, to immigration, to college financial aid, to taxation, health care and property rights. We’re entitled to the right of marriage, just like anyone else in this country.
I am leaning toward Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, because marriage equality is in their platform. But I encourage each of you to not vote for McBama and O’Cain, but to vote for someone, anyone who supports your equal rights as Americans.
I agree Wayne. This election is at least as important to the GLBT community as Clinton’s was – perhaps moreso. If the – beholdent to the far right wing neo-con GOP – retains the presidency – it will be a very dark era for the GLBT community. Our current moron-in-chief managed to get a second term (since he was handed the 1st one by the Supreme Court) by using issues of importance to GLBT – to demonize us and motivate their ignorant, intolerant base. They are at it again with the line-up of what can only be considered a-holes the GOP convention last night and this pathetic excuse for a VP nominee Palin. This is not some trivial election, if the Democrats cannot win after 8 HORRIFIC years of this utterly tragic administration – it will be a profoundly serious and negative statement about the intelligence of the American people.
Obama’s support of GLBT issues is on record, not just in word, but in deed -and stands in stark contrast to McSame, in fact – the two could hardly be more polar opposites in regard to GLBT issues.
Let’s also remember that the next United States president, in all likelihood, will probably be nominating a Supreme Court Justice. The Supreme Court is already leaning to the right on many issues. Any challenges to equality will be doomed.
So let me see…LGBTs should vote for Barack Obama because he believes in civil unions and because he allowed so much talk about LGBT issues during the convention. Do I have it right? Please tell me there is a better reason for me to vote Obama/Biden.
Sorry. I don’t vote based on just one issue, even if that issue is a big one for me and many of my friends. The problem for me is, Obama doesn’t feel the same way I do on so many issues. I don’t feel he’s as ethical as many feel he is. I don’t get all warm and fuzzy just because he says the buzz word Change. He hasn’t explained to me in any way how he’s going to change other than just that he’s going to change Washington. Yeah, okay. And I have a hurricane proof house in the Keys that you can buy.
I’m not voting for McCain because he has noting in line with me. But I’m not sold on Obama yet, either. And certainly not because he’s ok with civil unions.
Yes, thats right, vote for Bob Barr and what a wasted vote that would be. While its true that neither Obama nor McCain support gay marriage, Obama does support civil unions, supports the repeal of DOMA, supports gays in the military, supports ENDA and would not attempt to block states from passing gay marriage laws – ALL of which are in COMPLETE AND UTTER CONTRAST TO McSAME.
Considering that Obama does not support gay marriage, he’s right on par with McCain. It wouldn’t matter who our president was, as the Democrats will still be in control of the Congress, so any gay-friendly law would be passed. Not to mention, the state and Supreme Courts can help us as well.
If anything, the only presidential candidate and political party that truly supports gay rights is Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party.