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Democrats push for gay vote
10/08/2007 15:13 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and her 2008 party rivals courted the support of gay and lesbian voters on Thursday at an unprecedented presidential campaign forum.
Clinton, top challenger Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards were among six of the eight Democratic hopefuls who descended on Hollywood for the forum, broadcast live and online by gay and lesbian television station Logo.
As expected, the forum - which saw each participant quizzed individually on gay and lesbian issues rather than engaged against each other in debate - threw up few if any surprises.
Clinton and Obama both defended their opposition to same-sex marriage, preferring instead to use the platform to state their cases for civil unions.
Vowing to be a president who would fight on behalf of the gay and lesbian community, Clinton said her stance on marriage was "a personal position".
Pro-civil unions
"I prefer to think of it as being pro-civil unions," Clinton replied when asked to explain her opposition to gay marriage. "It's a personal position ... we have made it clear in our country that we believe in equality. How we get to full equality is the debate we're having now."
Clinton's comments echoed Obama, who earlier insisted civil unions for same-sex couples would be equivalent to marriage.
"From my perspective, as I've proposed it, it (civil union) wouldn't be a lesser thing," Obama said. "Semantics may be important to some but what I'm interested in is making sure that those legal rights are available to all."
Other Democrat participants included New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, long-shot Mike Gravel, and congressman Dennis Kucinich.
The event highlighted the fault line between Democrats who largely back broader gay and lesbian rights, and Republicans, who prefer to seek support of traditional 'family values' conservatives.
Republicans spurned invitations from Logo to stage a similar event.
- AFP
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