Out For Democracy

Another Republican Presidential Picking Daisies

He loves gays. He loves them not. He loves gays. He loves them not. Just like all the other republican presidential candidates, Tommy Thompson is having a hard time deciding.

During the Republican Presidential Candidate Debate he was asked "If a private employer finds homosexuality immoral, should he be allowed to fire a gay worker?"

Thompson replied: "I think that is left to the individual business. I really sincerely believe that that is an issue that business people have got to make their own determination as to whether or not they should be."

But after the debate he did a quick flip-flop. He stated during an interview "I did not hear the question properly. There should be no discrimination whatsoever in America. And nobody should be able to discriminate against any individual on sex or on their occupation. What I really meant to say and should have said more poignantly is that this should be left up to the states. States should have the opportunity of regulating individual hiring and firing. And it should not be a federal law at that particular point in time"

It seems all the Republican candidates, many of whom (Giuliani, McCain, Romney) have been supportive of LGBT equality in the past, are having a hard time figuring out how anti-gay they need to become to win the Republican nomination. The new gay-wedge issue of basic fairness and equality is going to to continue to follow these candidates through the primary, and the anti-gay things that are said now will surely come back to haunt whoever wins the nomination. The rest of the country is, after-all, much more fair-minded than the Republican base.

Hillary Clinton's LGBT Supporters

Hillary Clinton has released her list of LGBT Supporters. The list includes at least two folks who were actively involved in the Howard Dean campaign, Ethan Geto and Mirian Saez. Not suprisingly, there are also several folks here from the so called 'HRC Massachusetts Gay Mafia', as described by the Blade including Mary Breslauer and Hillary Rosen. Hillary Clinton received a warm reception at a recent HRC event.

Here is the complete list:

Christopher Barley, New York City physician

Mary Breslauer, HRC’s XM radio show The Agenda

Ilene Chaiken, creator and executive producer of The L Word

Bruce Cohen, film and television producer

Tom Duane, New York state senator

Steve Elmendorf, president of Elmendorf Strategies

Ethan Geto, publicist and political consultant

Emily Giske, Democratic National Committe

Deborah Glick, New York state Assembly

Chad Griffin, political consultant

Rebecca Haag, executive director of AIDS Action

Fred Hochberg, former Bill Clinton cabinet appointee and dean at The New School

Roberta Kaplan, attorney

Billie Jean King, sports legend and activist

Neel Lattimore, Hillary's former press secretary as First Lady, currently communications director at Children’s Defense Fund

Rachel Lavine, New York state committee member

Danny O’Donnell, New York state Assembly

Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council

Hilary Rosen, recording industry executive, HRC board member

Peter Rosenstein, gay rights activist

Mirian Saez, Democratic National Committee

Jeff Soref, former chair of the Democratic National Committee LGBT caucus

Jill Stauffer, HRC board member

Sally Susman, executive vice president for global communications at Estee Lauder Companies

Matthew Titone, New York state Assembly

David Wilson, HRC board member

Barack Obama's LGBT Supporters

Barack Obama's campaign has released a list of his LGBT supporters. The list, which primarily includes Chicago residents, including two people I know well. First, Jessica Halem is someone I had the pleasure of working with when she was the Executive Director of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project. Jessica has since left the organization to work full-time as a stand-up comic. Second, Jim Pickett is someone I first met at one of the Gay Men's Health summits. Jim is active in numerous LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations including the International Rectal Microbicide Working Group.

I'm pleased to see that there are some great LGBT advocates involved in many of the campaigns, including Obama's. The complete list he sent out is listed below:

Michael Bauer, political consultant

Phil Burgess, Walgreen's pharmacy executive

Thomas Chaderjian, Stonewall Democrats

Rick Garcia, Equality Illinois

Vernita Gray, LGBT activist

Jessica Halem, Lesbian Comm. Cancer Project

Greg Harris, Illinois House of Representatives

Kevin Hauswirth, former editor, The Advocate

Robert Kohl, Chairman, Center on Halsted

Larry McKeon, former member, Illinois House

Gail Morse, attorney, partner in Jenner & Block

Mary F. Morten, former LGBT liaison to Mayor Richard M. Daley

Ed Mullen, attorney, partner Ross, Dixon & Bell

Jim Pickett, AIDS Foundation of Chicago

Debra Shore, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago

Rev. Stan Sloan, exec. director, Chicago House

Tom Tunney, Chicago alderman

Richard Wilson, chair, National Lesbian and Gay Law Association

Lauren Verdich, political and health consultant

The Race for LGBT Dollars

Lisa Keen has a great article in PrideSource looking at which Democratic Presidential Candidates are getting LGBT dollars. She writes:

"In ten zip code areas with well-known heavily gay neighborhoods in seven cities, Clinton took in 51 percent of contributions made to the top three Democrats, as reported in the April quarterly report made available by the Federal Elections Commission this week. Obama raked in 39 percent, and John Edwards 10 percent. In Ann Arbor's zip code of 48104, Clinton took 68 percent of the money given to the top three Democrats, followed by Obama with 20 percent, and Edwards with 12."

It's always hard to tell just how much LGBT money goes to Democratic causes. Obviously we don't just live in those zip codes, we are everywhere. But unless you make it clear that your donation is from an LGBT Democrat, who's going to know?