Democrat and Republican candidates target LGBT community at LOGO forum

Community Marketing Inc. recently released the results of a survey they conducted of 22,000 lesbians and gays this spring. The survey revealed that 92.5% of gay male respondents and 83.8% of lesbian respondents voted in the 2004 presidential elections.

“The results of the Gay Consumer Index and Lesbian Consumer Index studies demonstrate that the political parties would be smart to pay attention to the issues that mean the most to gay and lesbian voters,” said Tom Roth, president of Community Marketing. “We have far more at stake than the average voter and we're therefore far more engaged in the political process."

Still, candidates who are “out” about not supporting gay marriage enjoy the support of many LGBT people. Why is this? I think it is because the LGBT community believes that they have no other choice.

But if those of us who believe we deserve equal rights really think gay marriage is a priority, then we should support either Kucinich or Gravel, making it clear to the frontrunners (no pun intended) that we will not stand for second-class citizenship.

The LOGO Network televised a presidential forum on August 9, 2007, which was the first debate exclusively focused on LGBT issues. (Click here) The forum featured Democratic candidates Barack Obama, John Edwards, Kucinich, Gravel, Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton.

When asked if there was anything related to gay rights he didn’t support, Kucinich implied that there isn’t, and told viewers to keep their contributions coming. Asked about gay marriage, he said: “This is really a question of whether you really believe in equality. I mean I see the ‘equal’ sign there, and I have that same sign in my office in Washington, D.C. And imagine that ‘equal’ sign inside a heart. Because what we’re really talking about here is human love. And there’s no power on this Earth greater than human love.”