GCN says: the choice is clear.
Gay City News has endorsed Barack Obama for president. In the issue that hits the streets today, carries a carefully considered and qualified endorsement of the senator from Illinois.
The endorsement of the largest-circulation and most influential LGBT weekly newspaper in New York could help Barack Obama in a city in which all the LGBT Democratic clubs have endorsed Hillary Clinton, as has the city’s other gay paper, the New York Blade.
“The nation needs to hear our views on how American politics can accommodate new voices in the mix,” GCN declares. “Judged by that measure and taking full stock of how the Democratic nomination contest has unfolded, we believe the choice is clear. Gay City News endorses Barack Obama.”
I should say by way of full disclosure that I have written op-ed pieces for both GCN and the Blade and that my name is on the masthead of GCN (in teeny tiny print) as a contributing writer. I have been a regular news source for both papers, and have provided news tips to both papers from time to time. But I myself am a bit surprised by the GCN endorsement of Obama, giving the paper’s strong criticism of him over the Donnie McClurkin affair, which the GCN editorial acknowledges as a source of concern.
“The McClurkin episode, unfortunate as it was, pales in comparison to the divisiveness that Senator Clinton has allowed her campaign to devolve into,” GCN argues. “Her comparison between the roles played by Dr. King and President Lyndon Johnson in advancing civil rights can be chalked up to inartfulness. The comments coming from her surrogates are far more disturbing, forming a pattern that sadly can no longer be ignored.”
The GCN editorial cites the way in which Clinton surrogates “injected ackwnoledged youthful cocaine use” into the debate. “New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo inexplicably used the phrase ’shuck and jive’ in describing what a presidential candidate might try to pull with the media, and then had his operatives bombard the press with official umbrage that his words might be construed as targeting the African-American senator,” GCN adds.
“Nobody, however, has been more egregious than Bill Clinton. In his ardent championing of his wife, the former president has dissed Obama as ‘a kid’ and this past Saturday was quick to mention Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 South Carolina primary wins to contextualize Obama’s commanding victory,” GCN says, noting the Clinton strategy of attempting to marginalize Obama as the ‘black candidate.’ “That is unacceptable, and the LGBT community should lend its voice to a growing progressive chorus in turning its back on this kind of politics,” GCN declares.
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Perhaps, but here's something that neither Barack nor Michelle Obama has ever done to Clinton: Paint her as a ghettoized, feminist-only candidate or equated her to, say, Gloria Steinem or some other feminist figure who is controversial among the mainstream. Billary's race-baiting of Obama, in contrast, has been despicable! And it's what finally convinced me to support Obama, which is who I'll be voting for in New York State next Tuesday.
Also as a Gay American I believe it is important to choose the best civil rights candidate. Obama has shown his true side. On the Logo debate and many other debates. In a Baptist church in South Carolina he spoke out against homophobia in the African American commnity and the need to change that(something unimaginable before). He new this was not a popular message, he new it could hurt him but he did it anyway. That shows TRUE leadership. He also spoke in favor of gay marriage in a town hall meeting in New Hampshire saying that he was "ok with it" when his church voted for Gay marriage.
This is a man possible of changing our country for the better and getting more people involved in a truthful political process and I am happy to be voting for him. As a minority, a Gay man, a liberal and a proud American I hope that you all well join me and vote for Obama.