Democrats Take on Gay Issues in TV Forum
Democratic presidential hopefuls were grilled Thursday night mainly on their reluctance to support same-sex "marriage."
Six of the eight Democratic candidates participated in what organizers marked as an historic and unprecedented forum. The event in Los Angeles, sponsored by the pro-gay Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and MTV's homosexual cable network Logo, was the first time that candidates running for the White House appeared together in a nationally televised forum specifically to discuss gay issues in front of a largely gay and lesbian audience.
"We pulled the curtain back a bit and gave all Americans a deeper look inside the candidates' core beliefs about the issues that affect our community," said HRC president Joe Solmonese, according to Reuters.
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But after two hours of hearing all six candidates, Solmonese said the reasons most of them oppose same-sex "marriage" "became even less clear."
While all backed civil unions and making the same legal rights of married couples available to homosexual couples, none of the leading Democratic candidates embraced marriage for such couples.
The forum kicked off with a question about what role the church plays in civil marriages.
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois expressed support for civil unions and argued that civil unions wouldn't be a "lesser thing" than marriage. Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ, which is the largest Christian denomination that endorses same-sex marriage.
"If we have a situation in which civil unions are fully enforced, are widely recognized, people have civil rights under the law, then my sense is that's enormous progress," he commented.
When asked by Jonathan Capeheart of The Washington Post, one of the moderators of the forum, about homophobia in the black church, Obama said that some religious voters "have elevated one line in Romans above the Sermon on the Mount."
"My view is we should try to disentangle what has historically been the issue of the word 'marriage,' which has religious connotations to some people, from the civil rights that are given to couples," he said.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said he was wrong to have said in an earlier debate that he opposes same-sex marriage because of his religion and did not respond as to what the core reason for his opposition was.
He expressed support for teaching children about families with "two mommies."
Democratic frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York was also asked to explain her reason for opposing gay marriage.
"I prefer to think of it as being very positive about civil unions," she responded. "We have made it very clear in our country that we believe in equality. How we get to full equality is the debate we're having."
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson also expressed his opposition to same-sex "marriage.
The only two candidates on the program who support homosexual marriage were Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska senator Mike Gravel.
While gay tolerance in America is on the rise, a majority of Americans oppose nationwide recognition of same-sex marriage. A recent Pew survey found that 57 percent oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry.
Candidates of both major parties were invited to the forum, but all Republican candidates declined to attend.
Organizers and gay-rights advocates say the willingness of the Democratic presidential candidates to participate enthusiastically in such a forum reflected progress in gay rights support, even if all the Republican candidates declined invitations to take part in their own event, according to The Boston Globe.
Prior to the forum, conservatives blasted the event, arguing that it was designed to "advance the radical homosexual agenda and to promote social and governmental acceptance" of the homosexual lifestyle, as Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America had stated.
On other issues, all of the Democratic candidates expressed support for a federal ban on anti-gay job discrimination and repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring gays from serving openly in the military.
