Opinion: Outing the Democratic candidates
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At last night’s forum on gay rights, the main Democratic candidates generally held the left-of-center line on most questions — but they did offer up some interesting twists.
Some highlights from the forum, hosted by the Human Rights Campaign and LOGO:
Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich won major points for supporting gay marriage. At one point Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capeheart asked, “Is there anything the LGBT community wants that you’re against?”
Kucinich’s only response was lengthy silence. Capeheart pressed, “There’s gotta be something,” to appreciative laughter from the audience.
Capeheart pointedly asked Barack Obama, “How can you run as a candidate of change when your stance on same-sex marriage is decidedly old school?”
Obama’s immediate response, “Oh, come on now!” didn’t do justice to a reasonable question — although he did go on to list his record on gay rights issues. Apparently, gay marriage is one thing he and Hillary Clinton see eye-to-eye on.
John Edwards had an awkward moment when rocker Melissa Etheridge mentioned she’d heard he had said he was uncomfortable around gays, and asked, “Are you okay right now?” Edwards, after guffawing, flatly denied having said it and blamed the rumor’s generation on a political consultant.
As Michael McGough mentioned earlier, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson put a huge foot in his mouth at a crucial question from Etheridge: “Do you think homosexuality is a choice or is it biological?”
“It’s a choice,” he answered gravely.
Etheridge, displaying mercy upon this political near-suicide, quickly cut in, “I don’t know if you understand the question.”
Richardson’s rambling response? “I’m not a scientist… I don’t like to answer definitions like that that perhaps are grounded in science or something else that I don’t understand.”
It’s hard to say which was more damaging: His answer or the impression that he had no idea why his response was, for this audience, the wrong one. His campaign office did damage control soon after.
Both Obama and Edwards held fundraisers close by afterward — an interesting reminder of the gay community’s growing political influence. Just a few campaigns ago, noted NPR’s Steve Inskeep, the presidential debate might never have happened — no channel would carry it and fewer candidates would participate. Newfound Democratic enthusiasm aside, none of the Republican candidates showed up.
Well ... that’s progress, folks.