Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate Gay And Lesbian Issues On Logo TV And Internet Tonight!

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a three-part series on gay politics in America today. Part Two, a discussion about tonight’s debate will post Friday, and Part Three, “The Mainstreaming of Gay America” will post Monday.

Six Democratic Presidential candidates tonight will debate issues that impact America’s gay and lesbian voters in what hosts Logo TV and the Human Rights Campaign are calling The Visible Vote ‘08: A Presidential Forum. Visibly absent will be Senators Joseph Biden and Christopher Dodd. Veteran journalist and Huffington Post blogger Margaret Carlson will moderate the “historic” gay debate. HRC President Joe Solmonese, singer Melissa Etheridge and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Washington Post Editorial Writer Jonathan Capehart will also be posing questions.

Queer politics are not the only issue of interest about tonight’s event. Like last month’s popular YouTube Presidential debate, neither could have taken place during the last presidential election, as neither Logo nor YouTube existed. Also unlike last month’s debates, tonight’s panelists will include publicly-open homosexuals. Additionally, Carlson was the first woman columnist at TIME magazine. Mrs. Clinton would be the first woman president. Etheridge will be the first non-journalist to contribute as a panelist in this year’s set of debates.

But perhaps most distinctive is the mere fact that this country, despite growing religious right extremism, is even having a formal, basic-cable version of a “gay debate” with mainstream, leading politicians. In 2004, same-sex marriage was the most divisive aspect of the election. Early that year, the president demanded a constitutional amendment from Congress to ban gay marriage, which he claimed threatened “the most fundamental institution of civilization.” Seemingly, Americans feel strongly that what threatens our civilization now are illegal immigrants and the newly re-found Al Qaeda insurgents in Iraq, along with the poor performance of both Congress and the White House. ”The gays“ have now been moved to the back burner, especially after the Christian Right’s and high-level Republicans’ scandals involving Ted Haggard, Glenn Murphy Jr, Ed Schrock, Mark Foley, Bob Allen, David Dreier, not to mention the $660 million sexual abuse settlement made recently by the Los Angeles Catholic Church to avoid a public trial.

The candidates on stage tonight will face tough choices in deciding how strenuously they will support gay voters, and the issues of most interest to them. Gay marriage, civil unions, equality in the workplace, gays in the military, the ability to access a partner’s health and insurance benefits, and the ability to adopt are just a few of the many possible topics that will come up. And while it is estimated that approximately 90% of gay voters will vote (a number much higher compared to the average of all Americans,) that voting block is still relatively small (an estimated 4%), but potentially large enough to swing the primary from one Democratic candidate to another. It will be an exciting, and, dare I say, passionate evening.

See where the Democratic candidates stand on GLBT issues.

Watch the debate live, tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern on your local Logo TV cable channel, or on the Internet at logoonline.com.
You can find your Logo TV channel here.

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Tags: candidates, Democratic, Gay, GLBT, HRC, Huffington Post, Humn Rights Campaign, Internet, Joe Solmonese, Jonathan Capehart, LGBT, Margaret Carlson, Melissa Etheridge, religious right, TV, Visible Vote, voting