First Presidential Forum on GLBT Issues

On August 9th, Logo and HRC sponsored the first ever presidential debate that focused specifically on GLBT issues. The fact that the event even took place is historic. Twenty, even 10 years ago, this never would have happened.

All of the Democratic candidates for President participated with the exception of Senator Joe Biden of Delaware and Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. Each cited “scheduling conflicts”.

All Republican candidates for President were also asked to participate in a separate debate. However, they either simply said no or didn’t reply to the request at all. This isn’t really surprising when you consider that Republicans used gay marriage as a wedge issue in the 2004 election.

Overall, I think the format itself worked very well; however, their weren’t any big surprises as far as their stances on the issues. The only candidates that completely support gay marriage are Congressman Dennis Kucinch and Senator Mike Gravel. All other candidates say they support civil unions but do not support full marriage rights.

Here are the debate highlights in ten minutes:

Perhaps the big shocker of the night came when Gov. Bill Richardson stated that he though homosexuality was a “choice”.

Personally, this was very difficult for me to watch because Gov. Richardson was a candidate that I really liked. He tried to “clarify” what he said following the debate, but it looks like the damage is already done. It is for me anyway. I cannot support a candidate calls my sexual orientation a choice.

See it for yourself here:

~ by soundofwater on August 12, 2007.