Opinion :: Editorial
Barack Obama for president
Thursday Oct 30, 2008
On Nov. 4 the LGBT community should head to the polls to vote for Barack Obama for president. As Sen. John McCain, long viewed by many as a moderate on LGBT rights, has lurched to the right during this campaign and nominated Christian right darling Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, Obama and running mate Joe Biden have maintained a firm commitment to equal rights for our community.
Obama does not support civil marriage for same-sex couples. But he has indicated he would support civil unions that grant all the federal benefits and protections of marriage to same-sex couples. He also supports a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act and repealing the military’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy. Obama, like McCain and Biden (and unlike Palin), opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment. He supports the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Amendment.
Obama has promised to use the bully pulpit of the office of the president to make the case for LGBT equality, and he has already demonstrated his willingness to do so on the campaign trail. Politico.com covered a speech Obama gave in Beaumont, Texas, last February before a predominantly African American crowd. Obama won cheers from the audience when discussing the need to fight discrimination based on race and gender, but the enthusiastic crowd reportedly fell silent when Obama mentioned his support for extending full civil rights to gay and lesbian people. Undeterred, Obama responded by saying, "Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday. ... I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian." The crowd responded with cheers. Obama’s bravery in standing firm on LGBT rights before an unsympathetic crowd and his ability to win them over are impressive, and the LGBT community stands to benefit by having such an ally in the White House.
An Obama White House also means that the LGBT community can breathe easy when it comes time to nominate justices to the Supreme Court. With at least one of the four solidly liberal Supreme Court justices -- possibly more -- expected to retire in the next four years the LGBT community needs to have a president who respects the court’s role in standing for civil rights, and Obama more than fits the bill. With an increasingly complicated patchwork of state laws about recognition of same-sex couples it is only a matter of time before the issue of marriage equality winds its way to the Supreme Court, and we cannot afford to have a president who will stack the court with more Scalias and Thomases.
That’s not to say Obama has been perfect, and LGBT people should resist the urge to give in to the Obama swoon. It may be a hard fact of political reality that supporting marriage equality is political suicide for any serious presidential candidate, but that’s cold comfort for people in Massachusetts, who have been living with same-sex marriage for four years and waiting for a national politician like Obama to show courage on the issue of equality. And lately Obama’s enthusiasm for using the bully pulpit to support LGBT rights has waned. The LGBT community is engaged in a desperate fight to defeat Proposition 8 in California, which would end marriage equality in that state. Obama is on record opposing Prop 8, but in none of his recent public appearances has he taken the opportunity to denounce Prop 8 before a camera. A campaign aide told the blog Bilerico that Obama would not be discussing his opposition to a marriage amendment in Florida on the campaign trail because, "he feels it might not be appropriate for him to tell Floridians how to vote since he is not a Floridian."
None of this should discourage voters from supporting Obama, who is far and away a better choice for LGBT people than McCain. But we should see such failures of leadership as a reality check. Just because Obama supports us on paper, that does not mean he will expend political capital once in office to fight for our rights. We learned that the hard way with Bill Clinton, who caved on "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" and cravenly signed DOMA in the dead of night. Electing Obama is only the first step in pushing for equality at the federal level. The next step is making our voice heard in Washington and holding him accountable.
State races
It goes without saying that Bay Windows readers should go to the polls to vote on Election Day, but as the LGBT community learned over the last few years during the marriage debate, there’s more to democracy than just casting a vote. There are several candidates with strong positions on LGBT equality who deserve more than just the community’s vote on Election Day; we should be out in the district for these candidates holding signs and helping the candidates get out the vote. If you live in or near any of their districts and can take time off work on Election Day, contact their campaigns and offer your support as a volunteer. And check out the voter guide on page 4 to see all the LGBT endorsements.
Among the top priorities is Sara Orozco’s campaign to unseat anti-gay Wrentham Sen. Scott Brown (Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex district). Orozco is an out lesbian and a Needham psychologist who is particularly passionate about issues facing LGBT youth and elders, and she would be a wonderful addition to the Senate. And it would be poetic justice for an out lesbian to defeat Brown, who is a longtime opponent of marriage equality and who once criticized his predecessor, openly gay Cheryl Jacques, for having children with her partner, calling their family "not normal." Voters should also lend a hand on Election Day to Rep. Jamie Eldridge, who is campaigning to succeed retiring Sen. Pam Resor in the Middlesex and Worcester seat. Eldridge was one of the lawmakers on the frontlines of the fight to protect marriage equality, and he would continue Resor’s legacy of support for LGBT rights in the Senate.
In the primary Bay Windows endorsed Sonia Chang-Diaz in her run to replace Second Suffolk District Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, arguing that Wilkerson’s long history of legal mishaps and her lack of contrition should persuade the LGBT community to throw its support behind her opponent, who has campaigned as a progressive with a commitment to ethics and accountability. Given Wilkerson’s arrest this week on bribery charges we can only reiterate our support for Chang-Diaz and hope that she continues Wilkerson’s proud legacy of standing for LGBT rights while eschewing Wilkerson’s tawdry legacy of legal shenanigans.
Voters have a chance to elect another stellar openly gay candidate in the Third Middlesex House race to replace retiring Rep. Pat Walrath. Kate Hogan, a Stow resident, ran an impressive primary campaign with little assistance from the LGBT political establishment, and she won Walrath’s endorsement. She’s running against Republican Sonny Parente, who has the backing both of the state Republican apparatus as well as the anti-gay Massachusetts Independent PAC for Working Families, so Hogan will need all the support she can get to win. Provincetown’s Rep. Sarah Peake, who is also openly gay, is running to hold onto her Fourth Bristol district House seat against Republican challenger Don Howell. While Howell is also a supporter of LGBT equality, Peake has proven her commitment to LGBT rights in her votes to defeat a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and to repeal the 1913 law. Peake far exceeds Howell in fundraising, but the Fourth Bristol is enough of a swing district that Peake could use help to make sure her voters go to the polls.
Wayland’s Rep. Thomas Conroy unseated anti-gay former Rep. Susan Pope in a surprise win in 2006, and he went on to vote against the anti-gay marriage amendment. Pope’s back this year and hoping to reclaim her seat, but voters in the district should get involved with Conroy’s campaign to ensure that doesn’t happen. Openly gay Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera of Springfield is running against perennial candidate George Vazquez to hold onto her Tenth Hampden district seat. The odds look very good for Coakley-Rivera, but it’s worth the community’s time to pitch in and make sure she holds onto her seat.
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