Obama Talks All Things LGBT With The Advocate

[canis_lupus]

From the online version of The Advocate posted online today:

Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama has been weathering a small storm lately in the LGBT community for being too tight-lipped with gay and lesbian news media.

Unlike his rival Hillary Clinton, who's given interviews to Logo and several local papers since appearing on the cover of The Advocate last fall, the Illinois senator has talked only once, to The Advocate, to address the Donnie McClurkin controversy. But last week his campaign offered our magazine an exclusive sit-down in Chicago with the man who may well become the next president of the United States.

To some extent, it symbolizes the brilliance of a protracted primary contest where candidates continually pivot and adjust in order to engage ever more voters. Had the race stopped cold in the snows of New Hampshire, gays and lesbians would have been left with one interview of record for each Democratic candidate in total.

But in a wide-ranging interview this Monday, Obama discussed "don't ask, don't tell," the Reverend Wright, and why LGBT folks should lead on marriage equality, not politicians. Some may call the chat a shrewd political move by the Obama camp ahead of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary. We call it access.

http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid53285.asp

[DURHAM D]

1. Yep - I just love in-depth platitudes and pandering.

Hear what you want to hear. See what you want to see.

What an empty suit.

[canis_lupus]

2. BTW, I'm neutral in this whole Hillary/Obama and gay issues debate.

And by "neutral" I mean I don't support either candidate but have resigned myself to holding my nose and voting for whoever the eventual Democratic presidential candidate may be.

[mitchtv]

3. You have basically the same position as me

I feel that it is basically over, Obama being my last choice as a Dem. I don't like him or trust him, but I've held my nose many times before, and will again. The religious devotion scares the shit out of me, when he disappoints these devotees,i don't wanna be around.

[dropkickpa]

4. Puff puff puff

not a word on Meeks. Good job there Advocate.

Do you have any regrets about the South Carolina tour? People there are still sort of mystified that you gave Donnie McClurkin the chance to get up onstage and do this, and he did go on sort of an antigay rant there.

I tell you what -- my campaign is premised on trying to reach as many constituencies as possible and to go into as many places as possible, and sometimes that creates discomfort or turbulence. This goes back to your first question. If you’re segmenting your base into neat categories and constituency groups and you never try to bring them together and you just speak to them individually -- so I keep the African-Americans neatly over here and the church folks neatly over there and the LGBT community neatly over there -- then these kinds of issues don’t arise.

Still no apology, and he never will apologize for it. To me, he's basically saying "Hate is okay if it wins me votes. Deal with it queers. We all have to deal with people we don't like."