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September 02, 2007
Breaking waves and a little news
Posted by: Chris
This weekend I attended the annual convention for the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA, or "negligee," as I call it for short), in sunny (steamy) San Diego, Calif. It was my 9th consecutive conference, and as always the highlight was catching up with colleagues and all the networking opportunities.
One particularly interesting panel was moderated by IN LA magazine's Karen Ocamb, my co-reporter on the story about Bill Richardson "maricón moment." Her panel was on how gay issues may play out in the 2008 elections, presidential and otherwise. A few nuggets:
- Steve Elmendorf, who worked gay issues and senior strategy for Dick Gephardt and John Kerry in '04 and is on board with Hillary for '08, flat out denied that Bill Clinton advised Kerry to back constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage as a "Sister Souljah" strategy. "It absolutely did not happen," he insisted. I tend to believe him, though it's hard to imagine Bob Shrum made it up from nothing.
- I missed some of what Elmendorf had to say because sitting next to me was Dan Blatt, better known as Gay Patriot West from the GayPatriot blog. He got so exorcised by the idea that Hillary is a victim, and not a purveyor, of attacks that he was about to go Sybil on me. Nice to see smart, passionate people across the spectrum in the room.
- Elmendorf went on to argue that Hillary isn't worried about Republican use of gay issues as a wedge because the strategy has played out and the public has moved on our issues. Besides, he said several times, Hillary is "uniquely qualified" to fend off right-wing attacks because she's been doing so for 15 years. I've heard that argument a number of times, and I don't get it. Most of those attacks have "stuck" and her negatives in polling are horrible. So why should we believe she'll be more effective this time?
- Jeremy Bernard, one-half of the gay couple behind B&G Associates, which is doing fund-raising consulting for Barack Obama in California, disagreed on whether the conservatives will try the gay wedgie. But he doubted it would be as pronounced an effort as four years ago. This time immigrants will the boogeymen. That I definitely believe. McCain's tanking campaign shows the red staters are hungry for some red meat on that issue.
- Scott Scmidt, better known as gay conservative blogger BoiFromTroy, did his best to argue for Rudy Giuliani in a room that was having none of it. He tried to argue that Rudy adopted civil unions in New York (City), though that's not the case. The domestic partnerships there fall far short of civil unions. Also, he neglected to mention that Rudy's campaign came out against New Hampshire's civil unions, claiming they were "too close to marriage." Still, Schmidt made a strong argument that for gay Republicans, Rudy is likely to do the least damage and could move the party to the center... a little.
- Elmendorf said gays have come a long way, baby, since 1992 and will expect more than just "inclusion"; we should expect to hear the right positions. I would argue that we crossed that bridge in 2000 and 2004, and this time around we expect more than positions but to be convinced that a candidate will lead on our issues and even risk political capital to see they are enacted. It's a test there's every indication that Hillary would fail.
- Bernard told a pretty incredible story about overhearing a meeting Barack Obama had with a group of black pastors in L.A. before last month's HRC-Logo debate. When a pastor complained that Obama needed to support their opposition to rights for gay couples, according to Barnard, the candidate said the same thing to them that he would say later on Logo: that gay couples don't keep black people out of jobs or cause them to do violence on one another.
I came away from the panel further seduced by the Obama candidacy. On gay issues and generally, he continues to impress.
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Double T on Sep 5, 2007 1:15:07 AM:
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig Reconsiders Decision to Resign.
At a boy, go out fighting.
And you thought Toilet-Gate was over. We're going into overtime.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295748,00.html