The ADVOCATE: Obama and the LGBT Community

In a lengthy interview with the gay magazine The ADVOCATE, Barack Obama gave little excuse for ignoring the gay media. He offered the fact that he's ignored other constituency groups as a reason for ignoring gay media as well. With that, the discussion went on to a basic Democratic Party platform of inclusiveness. Sounding much like Hillary Clinton in his views, while never once mentioning anything he has done for his Illinois LGBT Constituents or for any other Gay or Lesbian group or organization.

HOWEVER, the end of the article he finds time to clarify and say that part of why his personal campaign and platform is offensive at times is due to his "reaching out beyond the traditional Democratic base." Well maybe I missed something here, but isn't he trying to become the Democratic Nominee? Not the Independent nominee? Sounds like another Lieberman to me. Here's the end of the article:

"...our campaign is built around the idea that we should all be talking. And that creates some discomfort because people discover, gosh, within the Democratic Party or within Barack Obama’s campaign or within whatever sets of constituencies there are going to be some different points of view that might even be offensive to some folks. That’s not unique to this issue. I mean, ironically, my biggest … the biggest political news surrounding me over the last three weeks has been Reverend Wright, who offended a whole huge constituency with some of his statements but has been very good on gay and lesbian issues. I mean he’s one of the leaders in the African-American community of embracing, speaking out against homophobia, and talking about the importance of AIDS."

I'm sorry. I'm not drinking the Koolaid. I commend Rev. Wright for his work against homophobia in the African-American community. But Obama seems to want to pick and choose which parts of this man's character he will agree with.

Obama clearly hasn't taken our LGBT issues into his own sphere of consciousness. He wants to say, "Well the people of my campaign say this or that...." Yet, I recall that recently he made the comment that "gay people" should keep working on our issues. Did you catch that? Not, WE (meaning us and him) should keep working on LGBT issues, RATHER, "WE" (gay people, not Obama) should keep working on our issues.

We have a strong advocate and ally in Hillary Clinton. Her proven history and track record of support, inclusion and over abounding willingness to be a visible presence on behalf of our community speaks to her commitment to her pledge to "defend gay rights and eliminate inequalties for same sex couples" (Ellen DeGeneres speaking in an interview with Hillary).

Watch it here: http://ellen.warnerbros.com/EllenMediaPlayer/ You will need to select CELEBRITIES on the right side of the screen, then scroll down to "Hillary Makes and Important Statement on Gay Rights."