The fight for votes from the LGBT community was very much part of the Texas and Ohio primaries Tuesday, and the eventual victor in the Democratic contests, Sen. Hillary Clinton, went an extra mile to win them.
Clinton gave a joint telephone interview Feb. 27 to the Dallas Voice in Texas; the Gay People's Chronicle in Cleveland; and Outlook Weekly in Columbus, Ohio. In that interview, she promised, as president, to have a liaison to the LGBT community. She also did a 20-minute phone interview with the Houston Area Stonewall Democrats and, according to the group, 'Senator Clinton wholly committed to making immediate priorities of her administration such key issues as passing a completely inclusive ENDA, passing a completely inclusive Hate Crimes bill, and eliminating 'Don't Ask, Don't' Tell.'
In fact, said Teresa Herrin, president of the Houston chapter, Clinton promised three things in the first 100 days of her administration. In an interview Wednesday morning, Herrin said Clinton promised to ensure the LGBT federal workers have equal benefits, to use the bully pulpit for urge equal rights for gays, and to advocate strongly for fully inclusive ENDA and hate crime bills.
Herrin said Sen. Barack Obama declined the group's request for an interview, did not fill out the group's questionnaire and even refused to have a campaign staffer call in for the interview. Herrin said Obama did meet with Houston's oldest gay organization, the non-partisan GLBT Caucus.
Obama, the frontrunner in the delegate count for the nomination, has not yet given a general interview to a gay publication during the presidential campaign; and his campaign turned down requests from the papers in Texas and Ohio. But Obama did buy ads in gay papers in Ohio and Texas, spoke in support of gays during a town hall question-and-answer session in Ohio, and sent an 'Open Letter to the LGBT Community' to several gay papers. And LGBT supporters of Obama mounted an aggressive campaign to win gay votes in Ohio and Texas.
Although most political pundits and media reports were predicting Clinton would lose both Texas and Ohio and be under pressure this week to drop out of the race, she won both. In Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News, she won 51 percent of the vote, to Obama's 47 percent. In Ohio, according to The Enquirer in Cincinnati, Clinton won 54 percent of the vote to Obama's 44 percent.
The results of the Texas caucuses, which also took place last night and which will determine the fate of one-third of the Lone Star State's were not yet available, but the New York Times reported that Obama has a 52 to 48 percent lead over Clinton.
Also on March 4, Clinton won Rhode Island with 58 percent of the vote and Obama won Vermont with 60 percent.
Meanwhile, in the Republican race, John McCain secured the nomination by winning all four presidential primaries and their respective delegates yesterday. The wins prompted challenger Mike Huckabee to announce from the podium Tuesday night that he is dropping out of the race.
A fight for every vote
While there was very little discussion of gay issues on the Republican campaign trail in recent weeks, there was a sudden splurge of attention on the Democratic trail.
Obama fielded a couple of questions during a town-hall meeting in Nelsonville, Ohio, repeating his support for LGBT people and urging greater respect for gay people in general as the Christian thing to do.
'Sometimes, particularly in the African-American community—and the church sometimes,' said Obama Sunday in a speech to a small college audience, 'I hear people saying things that I don't think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian. I think everybody has the right to their own values, their own religion and their own practices, but I also know the 'Sermon on the Mount' says treat people as you want to be treated.'
The 'Sermon on the Mount,' as described in the Bible, was reportedly given by Jesus and is seen by many Christians as a guide for how to live in order to please god. The 'sermon' includes many passages familiar to Christians, such as 'Judge not that ye be not judged,' although Obama did not explain what part of the sermon he was referring to. Obama referred to the sermon again when explaining why he believes gay civil unions should be recognized by the state, again in response to a question from the audience.
He added that discriminating against gays and others is not helping but dividing people. And that, he said, is 'not the kind of politics I want to practice.'
Clinton interviews again
Clinton gave a simultaneous phone interview for 15 minutes to three gay papers—one in Texas and two in Ohio; Obama did none. Last month, Clinton also gave a 10-minute phone interview to The Washington Blade, just prior to the primaries in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
Eric Resnick of the Gay People's Chronicle, one of the Ohio papers given an interview with Clinton, wrote that he also tried to gain an interview with Obama but that the campaign 'offered an open letter in lieu of an interview.'
'I told them no,' wrote Resnick. 'I can't ask a letter questions. Then they suggested written questions, even though I told them earlier that wouldn't be acceptable. Again, I told them no.' The campaign soon thereafter said it could not fit an interview into the senator's schedule.
According to the Chronicle, Clinton was asked about the conclusions of a New Jersey state commission study which reported in February that civil unions give 'second-class status' to gay couples. The Chronicle said Clinton indicated that the report 'raises some serious concerns' but reiterated her support for civil unions, not gay marriage. She also said that her White House, like that of her husband, would have a liaison to the LGBT community.
Obama's 'reject and denounce'
The Clinton interview took place the day after the last Democratic presidential debate, in Cleveland. During that debate, Obama was asked by MSNBC panelist Tim Russert whether he is accepting support from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who recently endorsed him. Farrakhan is best known for his anti-Semitic remarks but he is also known to the LGBT community for his anti-gay remarks.
Obama said he has always denounced Farrakhan's anti-Semitic remarks and that he, Obama, 'did not solicit this support.'
'And we're not doing anything, I assure you, formally or informally with Minister Farrakhan,' said Obama. When Russert pressed Obama to say whether he was rejecting Farrakhan's support, the senator said, 'I have been very clear in my denunciations of him and his past statements, and I think that indicates to the American people what my stance is on those comments.'
Pressed further, Obama's comments began to echo those he made when the LGBT community expressed concern that his campaign's gospel tour of South Carolina included, on the bill, a performer well known for making hostile remarks about gays. The campaign did not pull the performer, Donnie McClurkin, from the program but Obama promised to work hard to build better relations between the African-American and LGBT communities.
Clinton jumped into the conversation and noted that she had explicitly rejected the support of an anti-Semitic group during her 2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate.
'I rejected it. I said that it would not be anything I would be comfortable with. And it looked as though I might pay a price for that,' said Clinton. 'But I would not be associated with people who said such inflammatory and untrue charges against either Israel or Jewish people in our country.'
Obama then said he didn't 'see a difference between denouncing and rejecting' Farrakhan's support.
'But if the word 'reject' Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word 'denounce,' then I'm happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce,' he said.
© Lisa Keen. All rights reserved.
