News :: GLBT
Keen on the Trail: McCain less popular among LGBTs than Bush
by Lisa Keen
contributing writer
Wednesday Aug 20, 2008
Standards toughen: A Harris Poll survey released Aug. 19 confirms the expected: Most LGBT voters -- 68 percent -- favor Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over Republican John McCain. But there were some surprises. First, 10 percent of LGBT voters appear to be backing McCain - who is widely considered one of the most pro-gay Republican presidential candidates in history. He has twice voted against a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and spoken against it on the floor of the Senate. And he has had cordial relations with Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay Republican group. Apparently, the LGBT community’s standards have grown tougher. In 2000, 25 percent of gay voters supported George W. Bush even though he offered only one or two symbolic gestures of supporting gay equality. And in 2004, 23 percent of LGBT voters still supported President Bush’s re-election even though he had established his hostility to same-sex marriage and his support of groups who were actively working against LGBT equality. The survey results were based on 178 self-identified LGBT people surveyed online between Aug. 1 and 7. They represented about six percent of the 2,834 adults surveyed overall - a percent two to three points higher than exit polls have indicated. The survey showed 15 percent of LGBT voters are still undecided, and seven percent favor independent candidates, such as Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and others.
New blog in town: Long-time gay Democratic activist Terry Bean of Portland, Oregon, launched an "LGBT for Obama" website and blog Aug. 18 to help direct contributions to the campaign from the LGBT community. Bean, who is on the campaign’s national finance committee, said he’s been "amazed how our community doesn’t understand what the stakes are in this election and how dramatic the differences are between the candidates." Bean has enlisted former Human Rights Campaign executive director Elizabeth Birch to create the site. Birch said she’s pushed the site - lgbtforobama.com - to give the community some quick and easy web tools for making contributions, finding out candidate positions, and searching for local events to attend. The blog will also feature some well-known gay political blog commentators, including Bil Browning of the Bilerico Project, Pam Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend, as well as David Mixner, John Aravosis, Michelangelo Signorile, and Mike Rogers.
McCain priority: One of the reasons behind the lower support for McCain might be his apparent eagerness to stand tough against anything pro-gay. In an Aug. 13 interview with the right-wing Weekly Standard, he explained the difference between two potential vice-presidential running mates - former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- both of whom support a woman’s right to have an abortion. "I think it’s a fundamental tenet of our party to be pro-life but that does not mean we exclude people from our party that are pro-choice. We just have a ... disagreement. And I think Ridge is a great example of that -- far more so than Bloomberg, because Bloomberg is pro-gay rights, pro, you know, a number of other issues."
Pressed on adoption: Another reason behind Republican John McCain’s lower support among LGBT voters might be his widely publicized position against allowing gays to adopt children. He elaborated, reluctantly on that position during a July 27 interview on ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos pressed McCain to elaborate on his position against gay adoption, which he had recently articulated in the New York Times. "My position," he said, "is it’s not the reason why I’m running for president of the United States. And I think that two parent families are best for America." Stephanopoulos pursued: "What do you mean by that -it’s not the reason you’re running for president?" McCain relented and added that he thinks, "it is important for us to emphasize family values, but I think it’s very important that we understand that we have other challenges, too. I’m running for president of the United States, because I want to help with family values. And I think that family values are important, when we have two-parent families that are of parents that are the traditional family." "But," said Stephanopoulos, "there are several hundred thousand children in the country who don’t have a home, and if a gay couple wants to adopt them, what’s wrong with that?" "I am for the values that two-parent families, the traditional family represents," repeated McCain. "I am for the values and principles that two-parent families represent. And I also do point out that many of these decisions are made by the states, as we all know. And I will do everything I can to encourage adoption, to encourage all of the things that keep families together, including educational opportunities, including a better economy, job creation. And I’m running for president, because I want to help families in America. And one of my positions is that I believe that family values and family traditions are preserved."
Clinton revisited: Hillary Clinton was warned about gay marriage as a potential liability even before she announced her bid for the Democratic nomination. Memos and e-mails from various Clinton campaign leaders, published by The Atlantic magazine this month, show campaign manager Mark Penn advising Clinton "what Republicans fear" about a President Hillary Clinton is that she would raise taxes, enlarge government, abandon the military in Iraq, preserve the right to abortion and "allow gay marriage." Very early on, of course, Clinton made clear she would not support gay marriage.
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