Tonight, Logo and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation present The Visible Vote '08, a live forum in which the leading 2008 Democratic presidential candidates will address a range of issues of importance to the LGBT community. And if you don't think that's a big deal, just trust those of us who grew up in the Reagan years: It's a very big deal. As panelist Melissa Etheridge notes, "The fact that these candidates have even agreed to show up to a televised forum on LGBT issues means that we have come a long way."
The event will be brodcast on Logo and VisibleVote08.com at 9:00 p.m. ET tonight. The full program will also be available on Joost on August 20, and on iTunes on August 21.
Meanwhile, over on the Visible Vote '08 website, a host of LGBT folk have been blogging about various election issues. Here are some excerpts of their views and insights.
Julie Goldman (The Big Gay Sketch Show):
I will vote for the candidate who supports gay marriage, as that candidate believes in human rights. That candidate believes civil rights are the foundation of human equality. That is what we are really talking about here. True equality.
I don’t need you to tolerate me or accept me, but my money is just as green as yours, and my love is as valid as anyone else’s — and no one has a right to judge or legislate that. I am tired of begging for what is already mine to own, the right to live as I see fit for myself. READ JULIE'S FULL POST
Linda Villarosa:
Instead of planning our weddings, let’s plan a better world. We’ve fought the good fight, but it’s time to move on and use our vast talents to fight the better fights, the ones that benefit everyone — straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and any and everyone in between. These include ending the war; battling HIV/AIDS with care, prevention and treatment; providing affordable health and child care for everyone; eradicating poverty; reducing the wildly escalating gap between the rich and poor; ending violence and abuse of all kinds, reducing the numbers of guns on the streets; lowering the prison population, healing drug and other addictions; cleaning up the environment; and erasing prejudice of every kind and discrimination against anybody.
...
But in the meantime, what about the original question — should lesbians and gays have the right to marry? With the complexities of politics and PR in mind, let’s keep it simple. To the Democratic Presidential candidates who are generously taking part in this groundbreaking Logo/HRC debate, there’s only one answer: “Yes!” READ LINDA'S FULL POST
Nancylee Myatt (South of Nowhere):
[T]he top of the list for domestic issues has got to be our broken health care system. Nothing would more radically alter the disparity between rich and poor in this country than single-payer national health insurance.
How is it that we are the only major industrialized country in the world that believes health care is a privilege and not a right? Why do so many of our fellow citizens lose everything to catastrophic illness? How come people have to stay in jobs they don’t like or don’t offer them chance of advancement because of lack of health care portability? Why do insurance companies get to dump people from their rolls after years of premiums? READ NANCYLEE'S FULL POST
Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls):
It is critical that we elect a president with a very clear and strong plan for protecting the environment. We are all aware of climate change and its catastrophic consequences. We need a president who will support legislation that reduces greenhouse emissions; a president who emphasizes energy efficiency and conservation; and a president who recognizes that nuclear power is not "clean" energy. We need a president who knows that the only way to protect and heal the earth is to shift our current US energy paradigm away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources. If we don’t take care of the earth, all other issues become non-issues because we won’t survive as a species. READ EMILY'S FULL POST
Kate Clinton:
Many right wing pols actually or cynically believe that God is speaking directly through them. God speaks through me too, but it’s in Aramaic and they fired all the gay translators. Those leaders have pontificated that homosexuality is immoral. They therefore believe they have the divine right to demean and deny our God-given LGBT identity, our marriages, our families, our military and civic service, our health, and our security in our own homeland. When they do that unto us, the best-dressed of their brethren, they diminish their own identities, unions, public service and security. LGBT Americans have to step up and call out their hypocrisies. READ KATE'S FULL POST
Visit VisibleVote08.com for more, including commentary by Martina Navratilova later today. And tune in for the historic forum tonight!
Team Linda
Right on Linda Villarosa!
"There is no formula. You learn to love by loving. "
Aldous Huxley
"Instead of planning our
these are just excerpts
oooooh, BAD cut.
but I was trying to get you to read her whole post!
Ohhh, I got HOSED! I was so
On the Other Hand
Like I said, I agree that
I Think...
...Linda Villarosa was broadening the spectrum of issues, not disregarding the importance of the marriage issue. For the wider audience (read: straight folks), LGBT issues are often marginalized to being exclusively about gay marriage and, on a good day, the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy...which, ultimately, I think, people use (rightly or wrongly) to justify our exclusion from the larger debate. Villarosa, I think, is simply pointing out that the LGBT community is about more than gay marriage.
The issues that she lists absolutely do include us....when politicians talk about health care (or not talk about health care, as the case maybe), they are talking about us. When politicians talk about their plans to lift folks out of poverty, they are talking about us. When politicians talk about their plans to Iraq, they are talking about us...not because we can serve openly, but because the security of this nation is a collective problem. The issues of concern to the LGBT community aren't merely a function of who we love is what I think Villarosa was trying to say (though I agree it could have been better worded).
I'm looking forward to this forum--though, after watching the AFL-CIO forum's fireworks earlier this week, I'm disappointed that the candidates won't get a chance to interact with each other. I'm also disappointed that HRC/Logo's forum is shrouded by celebrity instead of recruiting more gay or lesbian political operatives/pundits to participate (though Pam Spaulding will be live blogging).
I'm anxious to hear Hillary Clinton defend her husband's efforts on DADT and needle exchange. I'd like to see Obama talk more about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the black community, particularly as it relates to homophobia within that community, as he touched on in a previous debate.
Interesting Note - From yesterday's LA Times blog:
Gay Rights as a Gauge
I will be looking at these candidates and their stance toward gay rights as a gauge to judge how they will truly react toward all of these other very important issues. How a candidate supports human rights tells me how they will work with other nations for example to stop global issues, or what kinds of policies they will help drive towards solving healthcare issues or education issues, etc.
You see while I sit in my recliner crossing fingers and toes wishing they would jump up and say YES to gay marriage (I know they won't), the other things I will be listening to will be the other gay rights that they hopefully are able to openly discuss. The more open they are tells me that they will be more open to solving these other very difficult problems as well. I want to see these candidates truly open up and show me that they are NOT isolationists......that will tell me that they are willing to solve lots of problems and hopefully my legal rights, responsibilities and privleges will be mixed in.
Rachel Maddow...
...apparently had a few choice words about the moderators and sponsors of this debate:
Youtube video
But anyway, It'll be interesting to watch!
Thanks!
That was hilarious...and enlightening!
thanks for
the youtube clip. Rachel Maddow's great. And this whole debate smacks of serious pandering to the gays, but of course I’ll be watching.
I have to say, the debates until now have been pretty disappointing. I think Jon Stewart’s had the best commentary on them so far. And I liked Biden’s suggestion the other nite: to have one 90min debate on Iraq, one 90 min debate on healthcare, one 90 min debate on the economy, etc. instead of 60 second sound bites and packaged responses.
Human Rights Campaign
I will admit, I sometimes confuse the Human Rights Campaign with the Humane Society.
And no one knows what the equal symbol means....out of context anyway. In context with the bumper stickers on my car it means "Indigo Girls = Rainbow Flag"
A welcome forum
Speaking as someone who grew up during the LBJ and Nixon years (Scribegrrrl, you grew up during the Reagan years, isn't that cute!!!!), the fact that this forum, as imperfect as it may be, is even taking place is somewhat mind-boggling. When I was a kid, the psychiatric community still officially classified homosexuality as a disease.
But we have moved on, thankfully, and if the pols want our votes, we must hold their proverbial feet to the fire before we comply. On gay marriage, none of that insulting civil unions, separate-but-equal crap. Separate-but-equal was long ago disavowed when it comes to race, and it's no different when applied to sexual orientation. DADT must certainly go, and even though the Democratic candidates agree on this across the board, it's time to stop the lip service and actually do something. We're tired of being promised things that never come to pass once a candidate is elected.
It's Ms. Clinton, in my opinion, who has the most to answer for, based on her husband's record. Bill vowed to end the gay ban in the military, and instead we got DADT, which has proven just as bad as an outright ban. He also signed the shameful DOMA into law, which was absolutely inexcuseable. He kissed our collective ass real good while campaigning, but once elected, wasted little time throwing us under the bus. Did anyone also hear how Bill supposedly called John Kerry shortly before the '04 election and advised him to pick up some quick and cheap right wing votes by coming out in favor of a federal law to ban gay marriage? Kerry declined to take that advice, for which I'll always admire him, but the fact that our supposed friend Bill turned on us so viciously makes me wary of Hillary. I know, they're two different people, but based on her hubby's shameful track record, she absolutely has something to prove to us.
I'll be watching tonight. I invited some friends over, and was discussing the forum with some co-workers today, most of whom don't get LOGO, and they're coming by, too. A living room full of raucous, opinionated dykes and queens who are anxiously awaiting what our presidential hopefuls have to say to us! It's going to be beautiful...
Totally with you...
Totally with you on that “separate-but-equal” bullshit. And one of the questions I submitted for tonite was on that very issue.
But as much as I’m not a big Hillary fan, I don’t really hold her responsible for what Bill did while President (and IMO, despite his many errors, like DOMA and DADT, I still think he was a pretty good Prez. Esp looking back at those years now). I don’t think she has anything to “prove” based on Bill’s record – she’s got enough to prove in her own right, tho.
I'm curious about where you heard that Bill told Kerry to support a ban on gay marriage?
Whatever happens, I will unequivocally support whichever Dem gets the nomination, I don’t care who it is. Even if, in some strange twist of Bizarro fate, it should be Kucinich.
Ok, that'll be tough, I’ll admit….
ha
Well, I should say Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan years. Or I should say I came out during the Reagan years, which I guess is really the point. Shudder.
I'm with Linda Villarosa!
I have always been puzzled, and irritated by the choices that American LGBT communities decide to campaign on. For example - of all the issues that affected us, WTF did it decided to expand so much energy on gays + lesbians in the military??? Are we keen supporters of the military, especially given this country's record of blatant aggression on all and sundry?
And now marriage...
It always makes me think that the people running the LGBT show are guys, not women, and definitely not feminists. Civil Unions I can get behind, but MARRIAGE? Why are we so stuck on wanting to join this diabolical institution that has a history of treating women like property? Which - even hets are staying away from in droves. And rightly so: have you seen the stats? There's a 50% attrition rate!
And re the "Human Right's" (nod nod, wink wink) Campaign, has everyone seen the Rachel Meddow tirade about it? Hilarious :) See it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnZjg-NQXeM