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On 2/1/08, The Advocate reported that many Edwards supporters have switched to Obama now that Edwards has dropped out of the race.
A critical mass of John Edwards’s LGBT steering committee is going public with support for Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton. Twenty-two members of the Edwards campaign’s original 59-person gay and lesbian committee will now be working for Obama victories next Tuesday and throughout the rest of the primary season.
The article mentioned a lot of insider stuff, but it left out the obvious subtext. LGBT activists who were involved in the queer community at the time of the beginning of the Clinton administration remember how the Clintons broke important promises on lifting the miltary ban and on a "Manhattan Project" to cure AIDS.
The Clinton Administration never even tried to implement that "Manhattan Project." On the military ban, they created a fraudulently labeled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which was designed to increase the number of military witchhunts and discharges. DADT did just that and even resulted in undercover MPs in gay bars in Washington, DC.
When Melissa Etheridge mentioned during the Logo/HRC debates that Bill Clinton was guilty of "throwing us under the bus," she was speaking for a huge constituency of queers who recognize how we were screwed over by the Clintons in the past and know not to trust any Clinton in the future.
Here is the list of former queer Edwards supporters now siding with the Obama campaign.
Below is the full List of former Edwards supporters who are now publicly supporting Obama as provided by Eric Stern:
Eric Stern, former political adviser to the John Edwards for President campaign, former National Stonewall Democrats executive director, former director of LGBT outreach for the Democratic National Committee (California)
David Mixner, writer, Democratic Party activist (New York)
Linda Elliott, member of the board of directors for the Human Rights Campaign (Arizona)
Evan Low, council member for the city of Campbell, Calif.
David Garrity, vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party
Andy Szekeres, former Colorado Stonewall Democrats cochair, former Wisconsin LGBT field director, Kerry-Edwards (Colorado)
Kyle Bailey, former board member, National Stonewall Democrats, LGBT Caucus vice chair of Young Democrats of America, Chair of Atlanta Stonewall Democrats (Georgia)
Pam Cooke, National Stonewall Democrats board member; past president, Stonewall Democratic Club of Los Angeles (California)
Bill Hedrick, president of Central Ohio Stonewall Democrats
David Mariner, former Out for Howard Dean cochair (Maryland)
Jason Lansdale, past president of Central Ohio Stonewall Democrats
Daniel Hinkley, Nevada Stonewall Democratic Caucus president
Misty York, communications director for the Kentucky Fairness Alliance
Christopher Prevatt, chair of Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club (Orange County, Calif.)
Jim Maynard, president of Memphis Stonewall Democrats (Tennessee)
Daniel Graney, past president of Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio (Texas)
Arthur Nunn, former Missouri for Edwards volunteer organizer and founder of LGBT for Edwards MySpace Group
Brad Reichard, public pelations executive (Massachusetts)
Michael Shannon, national security expert (D.C.)
Les Krambeal, board member for the National Stonewall Democrats, cochair, Southern Arizona Stonewall Democrats
Robert D. Horvath Jr., member of the board of directors for the Mautner Project (D.C.)
Patrick J. Lyden, LGBT community activist (D.C.)
All organizations listed for identification purposes only.
Well, I can certainly understand their pov regarding the Clinton's..but Obama hasn't been sterling on the LGBT issues either has he?
In fact, he had some minister go off about gays a while back and Obama never said anything to the contrary.
Obviously, they learned a lot more than the labor unions, what are sending out pamphlets urgin' them to vote for the Clintons, even after they rammed NAFTA through Congress.
dusty: Obama did have the heterosexist "ex-gay" at his campaign appearences. However, Obama later delivered a major speech at a black church condemning homophobia.
He seems to have a love the homophobes, fight their homophobia approach.
How soon American people forget. Bill Clinton did not want the "Don't ask, don't tell". The Republic Congress at the time did not want gays in the military. The DADT was part of an was a compromise. Bill Clinton was forced to amend the bill because the then Republican Controlled house insisted upon that. At least that was a beginning for the gay people. Once bills are passed into laws or in this compromised law, this can be changed and amended. Remember BOTH HOUSES must approve this not the President, unless he can do this with a Presidential Executive Order. (Iam not sure that he can) Also I hope that people remember the Obama has a gay hating minister standing in the background. BB
anonymous: You are factually incorrect. Here are the facts.
1) Bill Clinton never intended to lift the ban. He lied when he made that promise as he lied about lots of things.
2) DADT was far from a compromise. It was worse than the previous version of the ban. It was designed to increase the numbers witchhunts and discharges, and that is exactly what happened.
3) DADT was a setback for the lgbt community, not "a beginning for gay people." It created an even more Draconian version of the ban and made it federal law, rather than merely executive order.
4) If Bill Clinton had wanted to lift the previous version of the ban via executive order, he had the votes in the Senate to sustain a veto of any legislation putting the ban in federal law. 35 Senators voted to lift the ban entirely, and they received zero support from the White House.
It is important to remember that when Hillary Clinton said at the Logo/HRC debate that DADT was "progress," she was saying something that was viciously homophobic. More witchhunts and more discharges are only "progress" to heterosexist bigots.
Much better format!
Very readable. Well done.
I blogged about the pickup for Obama from Edwards queer supporters. I think this is so exciting and so very important.
BTW, according to ZOGBY, Obama is ahead of the Borg Queen now in California! Woo Hoo!