Democrat Logo Gay TV Forum

TOPICS: Democrat contenders for US president. Democrats on Logo gay TV. USA. Gay media - Logo TV. US gay market communications. US presidential elections. Democrats. American gay and lesbian media news. Logo gay TV in America. US gay TV media. Gay TV media marketing strategies. US Democratic presidential hopefuls fronted up last night at forum on gay TV channel, Logo in the US.

Ian Johnson
August 10, 2007

Yesterday Gay Market News talked about ways mainstream brand marketing can be used by the US Democratic Party to target and tailor communications more effectively for the LGBT market.

Well the news is in about last night's gay TV forum in Los Angeles, where most of the Democrat candidates vying for the Democrat Party nomination for President attended a forum run by Logo gay TV and co-sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign.

Guardian Unlimited news reporting gives some good background about how the Democrat candidates acquitted themselves on leading gay TV channel, Logo TV, and how well their communications resonated with the target market.

Another good report can be found in The Washington Post Logo gay TV forum news report.

It seems likely, as we mentioned yesterday, that the times will keep changing and gay and lesbian Americans will continue their march into the center of the mainstream of American society and American culture.

Mind you, it still feels slightly awkward when you read how, based on last night's Logo gay TV appearance, Democrat candidates might support civil unions, but not gay marriage.

There is, a cynic might assume, always one eye on the importance of the lesbian and gay vote, with the other considering how to score with the conservative and religious components of the electorate - with every candidate wanting to maximize their vote.

Is it progress? Sure.

But, first and foremost, and - with every apology in paraphrasing a 1992 Clinton Presidential winning Democrats communications campaign slogan, as always - "It's about the politics, stupid!"

Here is an extract from New York Daily News media coverage of the Logo gay TV Democrats forum:

Democrats court gay vote

All candidates back civil unions, but not same-sex marriages

Hillary Clinton is among the democratic candidates who supports civil unions, with the rights of marriage but without that label.

LOS ANGELES - The leading Democratic candidates for President courted the gay vote yesterday while refusing to embrace the community's biggest issue - same-sex marriage - during an unprecedented presidential campaign forum devoted to gay and lesbian issues.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson all said they favored civil unions, with the rights of marriage but without that label. Only long shots Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel endorsed gay marriage.

"When you're a black guy named Barack Obama, you know what it's like to be on the outside," said the Illinois senator at the nationally televised forum in Hollywood. "And so my concern is continually to make sure that the rights that are conferred by the state are equal for all people."

Obama said he's "sympathetic" to gay rights advocates who view civil unions as "separate but equal." But he insisted civil unions "wouldn't be a lesser thing" as he proposed it, even though he conceded "semantics may be important to some."

Democratic front-runner (Hillary Rodham Clinton) came under tough questioning from musician Melissa Etheridge, one of the panelists, who said President Bill Clinton had disappointed gay activists. "Our hearts were broken. We were thrown under the bus," Etheridge said.

Clinton defended the progress made on gay rights during her husband's administration, while adding, "We certainly didn't get as much done as I would have liked."

Edwards retracted yesterday his statement that religion is at the root of his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Moments later, though, he reconfirmed his opposition to gay marriage, saying, "You deserve to know the truth, and the truth is that my position on same-sex marriage has not changed."

Edwards also took a shot at Clinton, saying her husband's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on serving in the military "is not just wrong now, it was wrong when it began."

Bill Richardson, when asked whether he thinks homosexuality is a choice or biological, he said, "It's a choice."

When given a chance to back off that statement, he didn't. Instead, he said, "I'm not a scientist."


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