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KEVIN NAFF
Friday, August 10, 2007
ADMIT THAT I had sour grapes over last night’s HRC/Logo presidential candidates forum.
For those of us in the gay media trenches covering the 2008 campaign week in and week out, it’s frustrating to watch from the sidelines as Melissa Etheridge, of all people, gets to interact face-to-face with the Democratic candidates as a panelist for the event.
Those candidates rarely speak directly to our issues. Sure, they assign a “GLBT liaison” to dispense predictable, focus group-tested platitudes to gay media outlets, but rarely do gay reporters and editors get to quiz the top contenders themselves.
The Democrats deserve high praise for signing on to the forum and addressing a gay audience. They look downright radical compared to their counterparts in the GOP, most of whom didn’t even bother to respond to the forum invitation.
HRC and Logo certainly deserve credit for pulling the forum together. And maybe Etheridge surprised everyone last night by grilling the candidates for specifics on their plans to advance gay rights (this column was written before the forum due to Blade deadline restrictions).
But the decision to entrust this rare opportunity, in part, to rock stars and straight journalists who don’t live these issues day in and day out was disappointing. Thankfully, there was one out gay journalist on the panel, Jonathan Capehart, a Washington Post editorial writer.
“There’s questions that just have to be asked,” Capehart told the Blade last week. “It’s gays in the military, it’s questions on gay marriage, it’s health care questions and equal opportunity questions and all those things that are written about and discussed and debated in the Blade and the blogs and other places.”
So if the questions to be asked of the Democrats are coming from issues debated in the Blade and the blogs, why not have someone from the Blade and the blogs ask the questions?
There are a number of professional, dedicated journalists working for gay publications like the Blade, Bay Windows, Bay Area Reporter, the Advocate and others. Those folks are already asking the questions each week and don’t need input from web users to figure out what to ask. Additionally, there are scores of gay bloggers who are also intimately familiar with the inequality faced by gay Americans. From Andrew Sullivan, who has been writing thoughtfully and powerfully about marriage longer than anyone, to bloggers like Keith Boykin, Andy Towle and Pam Spaulding, who monitor gay news 24/7, there is no shortage of experts on our issues.
Logo’s choice of Etheridge to serve as a panelist has rankled many of those journalists and bloggers because it’s further evidence of our country’s celebrity obsession. Did Logo executives really think we wouldn’t watch their forum without a celebrity asking the questions? That cynicism is insulting and choosing celebrities over gay journalists for this assignment was shortsighted.
In a Q&A posted to Logo’s visiblevote08.com site this week, Etheridge said, “The fact that these candidates have even agreed to show up to a televised forum on LGBT issues means that we have come a long way.”
Well, actually Melissa, that’s not quite right. The Democratic presidential candidates came together for a similar forum in 2003 — minus John Edwards, who was a no-show — to talk gay issues with ABC’s Sam Donaldson, an accomplished journalist with no overt political leanings. (Etheridge has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic causes and candidates, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, DNC and Walter Mondale’s failed Senate campaign.)
The online Q&A delivered no insights into her thinking on our issues or her response to the criticism of her selection. She did take a predictable and gratuitous potshot at the Bush administration. This is the faux journalistic tripe that passes for political discourse these days. Etheridge declined Blade requests for an interview, presumably because she would have to answer real questions from real journalists — what a quaint and anachronistic concept!
AND THE CELEBRITY takeover of the presidential forum didn’t end with Etheridge’s involvement. Just this week, Logo launched the site, visiblevote08.com, which streamed live coverage of the forum. At launch, the site featured an essay from that experienced and informed expert on the gay rights movement, Lance Bass.
Bass was outed just last year after partying with then-boyfriend Reichen Lehmkuhl in Provincetown over the July 4th holiday weekend. He seized the rare opportunity for a little publicity and appeared on the cover of People magazine, declaring, “I think the gay community is going to hop on my back because I’m not going to lead the parades and be this crazy activist. I don’t want to be a poster child.”
But just one year later, that’s exactly what he aspires to become. After receiving an award from HRC, which he didn’t deserve, he’s featured on the homepage of visiblevote.com opining on same-sex marriage. To say he’s late to that party would be a gross understatement.
Bass writes, “Bill Clinton promoted tolerance and acceptance of the LGBT community. … and fought for equal rights for LGBT Americans.”
Perhaps because Bass is new to being a “crazy activist,” he’s unaware that Clinton supported and signed the Defense of Marriage Act, one of the most anti-gay pieces of legislation ever to pass Congress. And because of Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, more than 11,000 gay and lesbian service members have been kicked out of the military. That policy has quite literally destroyed thousands of careers and lives.
Bass’ essay then turns to same-sex marriage. He writes, “I understand this issue isn’t going to win an election for the Democrats and may even cost votes, but supporting gay marriage is the right thing to do.”
Of course it’s the right thing to do, but the Democratic presidential candidates (except for Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich) have made it clear where they stand on same-sex marriage — they oppose it. And anyone looking for dramatic reversals on that topic surely came away disappointed last night.
It would be better for those political insiders like Etheridge and Bass with direct access to the candidates to ask more detailed, substantive and specific questions about pending legislation (hate crimes, ENDA and Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s marriage proposal in New York, for example) and their plans to advance their ideas than to waste time talking marriage.
Then again, I’m not a washed up boy band singer or a lesbian rock star, so what do I know?
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