News :: GLBT
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Time to pick a president
by Lisa Keen
contributing writer
Thursday Jan 31, 2008
| For gays in states with the largest gay populations, like California, it’s decision time in the 2008 presidential race. From the evidence available - anecdotal and indirect - most gays are trying to choose between the top two Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. For those who will consider only a Republican, now that Rudy Giuliani has bowed out of the race and Mike Huckabee is falling farther behind, the choice has also essentially narrowed to two, John McCain, whose record has been relatively moderate on gay-related issues, and Mitt Romney, who has reversed his previously articulated support for LGBT rights.
What’s problematic for the LGBT community at this juncture in the presidential contest is that the gay vote, which has provided favored
candidates with a significant and reliable voting bloc in the past, could be marginalized by record turnouts.
The Las Vegas Sun reported that more than 10 times the number of Democrats turned out for that party’s caucuses on Jan. 19 than attended four years ago. As many as one-third of the crowd were newly registered Democrats. Turnout records were broken similarly in the South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa Democratic contests.
Exit polls in the 2000 and 2004 general elections have found about four percent of voters willing to self-identify as gay nationwide, and what few surveys have been conducted indicate that the vast majority of gays are already registered.
But while the gay vote may seem diminished with a large turnout in the general election, it gets magnified in primaries, said political poll analyst Murray Edelman. That’s because most of that gay vote - 77 percent in the 2004 general election - goes Democratic. The gay vote impact is also magnified in many of the upcoming primary states, like California, Massachusetts, and Illinois, because of the tendency for many gays to live in or near major metropolitan areas and in states and cities with laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. A pre-election survey in 1996, for instance, found that about eight percent of "likely voters" in California were gay. Census data shows that the states with the highest concentrations of same-sex partner households and the highest percentage of unmarried men and unmarried women include many of the Feb. 5 primary states, including Massachusetts, California, Illinois, and Georgia.
And while history indicates that most LGBT people in the "Super Duper Tuesday" states will be voting for a Democrat, there are some indicators suggesting their choice is still not an easy decision. For some, the differences among the top-polling candidates - in both parties - are subtle distinctions.
But there are differences.
Blue comfort zone
An early benchmark on gay issues for Democrats has been, as in 2004, marriage equality. The early voting states of New Hampshire and Iowa were facing their own fights over the issue during 2007, and marriage is an active battle now in California and Florida. So attention on the issue has been inevitable.
For this campaign, it started in December 2006 with John Edwards, who dropped out of the race on Jan. 30, when, at his first campaign stop in New Hampshire, a gay man from Massachusetts stood up and asked where he stands on same-sex marriage. Edwards’ response essentially tested the waters for other Democrats as to how comfortable Americans were with the issue.
"It’s easy for me to say civil unions, yes, partner benefits, yes, but it is something I struggle with...it’s a jump for me to get to gay marriage," said Edwards.
It wasn’t long before Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama officially entered the race and they, too, struck similar positions. While Mike Gravel has said he supports equal marriage rights for gay couples, he has yet to earn a single delegate to the convention and has been left out of nationally televised debates.
Polls give a hint at the dilemma for the candidates. Most show a trend toward greater acceptance of equal benefits for gay couples, through civil unions or domestic partnerships, but not for legal recognition of marriage per se. And the one poll that examined the difference in attitude between Democrats and Republicans -- by CBS/New York Times in October 2006 -- found that 68 percent of Democrats but only 41 percent of Republicans were for marriage or civil unions. That suggested Democratic candidates needed to show considerable willingness to support some legal recognition for gay relationships but still be able to temper that somewhat in the general election.
But there is a difference between Clinton and Obama on marriage: Obama has said he believes the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) should be repealed, while Clinton says she would repeal only Section 3. That section of the law denies gay partners and spouses more than 1,100 federal benefits enjoyed by married heterosexual spouses. She would retain Section 2, which says states don’t have to recognize "relationships between persons of the same sex."
Obama also received some criticism last summer for his effort to brush off his refusal to support civil marriage for gay couples as a being just a matter of "semantics." He said that, as president, he would "fight hard" to ensure that gay couples have the "legal rights that have consequences on an everyday basis," but he could not promise to fight for more than that. He flatly disagreed with the proposition that a civil union is "lesser" than marriage and he subtly suggested the gay community’s concern that it is "separate but equal" at best and not equal at worst was not a concern that warranted extensive probing.
On the inclusion of information about gays in school education, there is also some distinction. During a nationally televised debate in September, a reporter asked the candidates whether they would be "comfortable" having a story about same-sex marriage between two princes "read to your children as part of their school curriculum?" Obama expressed that he would be comfortable with it and stated, "one of the things I want to communicate to my children is not to be afraid of people who are different."
"Because there have been times in our history where I was considered different, or Bill Richardson was considered different," said Obama, referring to the New Mexico governor and former presidential candidate, who is Hispanic. "And one of the things the next president has to do is to stop fanning people’s fears."
Clinton struck a different chord. She said she believes it should be "a matter of parental discretion" but added she also thinks "it is better to try to work with children, to help your children to understand there are many differences that are in the world and to really respect other people and the choices that other people make, and that goes far beyond sexual orientation."
On other issues: Both Democrats support the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), hate crimes legislation, coverage for domestic partners under the Family and Medical Leave Act, equal treatment of gay couples under tax laws, and repeal of the military’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy. Obama received considerable criticism from the LGBT community in October when he refused calls to eliminate an anti-gay performer, Donnie McClurkin, from his campaign’s gospel campaign tour of South Carolina. Clinton was criticized for attempting, in response to a debate question, to rewrite history when she claimed that her husband, President Bill Clinton, had signed "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" into law as a "transition policy." Both Obama and Clinton were criticized last spring for initially ducking a question about whether they agreed with then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace that homosexuality is immoral. They both eventually said they disagreed.
On voting records: In the U.S. Senate, the Human Rights Campaign gave identical grades to Clinton and Obama in the most recently completed 109th session of Congress (2005-2006). The 89 score, on a scale in which 100 is perfect, reflected the failure of both to co-sponsor a bill to provide the partners of U.S. gay citizens with the same immigration benefits available to the legal spouses of heterosexual citizens. Clinton earned an 88 in the previous session and a 100 in her first session.
LGBT relations: Clinton has received the lion’s share of high profile endorsements in the LGBT community, among them Reps. Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin, former HUD assistant secretary Roberta Achtenberg, tennis legend Billie Jean King, and California State Senator Sheila Kuehl. She has openly gay staff heading up her outreach to the LGBT community and spoke before a Human Rights Campaign gathering, albeit without any prior notice to the press. She gave a reporter for The Advocate a 15-minute interview but has not granted any other interviews to the gay press.
bama has the backing of film producer David Geffen, Equality Illinois Director Rick Garcia, and Colorado activist Donna Red Wing. He has openly gay liaisons to the gay community and he met in person, albeit without press notice, with a Freedom to Marry group in New Hampshire. He gave a reporter for The Advocate a 15-minute interview by phone in regards to the gospel tour controversy, but his campaign has not responded to any other requests for interviews from the gay press.
The Red rip tide
About one in four gay voters cast their ballots for Republican presidential candidate George Bush in 2000 and 2004. Patrick Sammon, president of the national gay Republican group Log Cabin Republicans, said the national group hasn’t endorsed a candidate yet and that its bylaws prevent local clubs from doing so, even in the primaries. He declined to comment on which candidates gay Republicans seem to be favoring.
Like most of the Democratic candidates, all the Republicans have been against legal recognition for gay marriage. Romney has been the most outspoken in this regard, both during his tenure as governor and on the presidential campaign trail. One possible exception is Ron Paul, whose campaign has failed to reach beyond cult status. Early on, Paul stated he believes "all voluntary associations, whether they’re economic or social, should be protected by the law." More recently, when an ABC interviewer asked him, "Should gays be allowed to marry?" he replied, "Sure." But he added that while gay couples "can do whatever they want," they "can’t make me, personally, accept what they do" and that he thinks "all governments" should simply be out of the marriage licensing business.
All the Republican candidates oppose civil unions. At one point, Giuliani was the sole Republican to support them, but then, last spring, in reaction to passage of civil union legislation in New Hampshire, his campaign told the New York Sun that Giuliani thinks civil unions "go too far."
Early on, Giuliani, Paul and McCain were on record as opposed to amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. McCain has consistently spoken out against and voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment. Paul has opposed it as a matter of his belief that marriage is strictly a state issue.
On other issues: None of the Republican candidates have expressed support for ENDA or for repealing "Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell."
On voting records: In the past three congressional sessions, McCain has earned failing marks from the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard - between 14 and 33, on a scale of zero to 100. Paul has earned between zero and 38.
LGBT relations: No gay groups or prominent gay leaders have endorsed Republican candidates for president during this campaign.
How they voted
Polling results in Miami and Key West on Jan. 29 suggested gay voters strongly backed Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, even though McCain used a last-minute anti-gay telephone message to voters to help put himself over the top in the Florida primary.
In overall statewide results, McCain won Florida’s 57 delegates by winning 37 percent of the Republican votes statewide; Mitt Romney came in second with 32 percent, followed by Rudy Giuliani with 15, Mike Huckabee with 14, and Ron Paul and others with 2 percent. Among voters in Key West’s heavily gay precincts, 47 percent supported McCain, 20 percent Giuliani, 19 percent Romney, 12 percent Huckabee, and 2 percent others. In Miami-Dade County, in the 12 precincts that make up South Beach’s heavily gay 33139 zip code, 43 percent supported McCain, 33 percent Giuliani, 14 percent Romney, and 10 percent others.
The results boosted McCain into the frontrunner spot in the field of candidates for the Republican nomination. McCain now has 95 delegates to Romney’s 67 and Huckabee’s 26.
Although the Democratic primary voting did not provide the victor with any delegates toward the party nomination, almost as many Democrats turned out to the polls as did Republicans, making the primary at least somewhat of a barometer of Democratic sentiment in Florida. In overall statewide results, Hillary Clinton won 51 percent of that vote, followed by Barack Obama with 33 percent, John Edwards with 14 percent, and two percent for others, several of whom were no longer running. Key West’s 10 heavily gay precincts had results roughly mirroring the statewide Democratic primary. But 61 percent of South Beach precincts went for Clinton. And it appears most of that support came from potential Edwards supporters. While Obama won 31 percent -roughly the same as Democratic voting statewide - Edwards earned only five percent of South Beach’s Democratic votes.
Both John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani have dropped out of the race in the aftermath of the Florida primary. While that leaves McCain as the sole moderate in the four-man GOP field now, his campaign’s actions in Florida diminished any possibility he could be seen as supportive of gays.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the McCain camp unleashed a recorded telephone message campaign just before the primary, saying the country needs a president who cares about "preserving the sanctity of marriage." The phone message faulted Romney for telling "gay organizers in Massachusetts he would be a stronger advocate for special rights than even Ted Kennedy" and then changing his mind.
Nadine Smith, Executive Director of Equality Florida, said that more than 500 volunteers worked outside polls throughout the state Tuesday to discourage voters from signing petitions to put an anti-gay constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage on the ballot there in November.
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