Election 2008
Every two years, the American people have the chance to make their voices heard about issues of national relevance. In the past three elections, Americans have demonstrated a growing understanding of the need for marriage equality in our country. As the long 2008 presidential campaign unfolds, there is plenty of time and opportunity to create the political space in which candidates and the public can talk about who gay people are and why marriage matters, and rise to fairness.
For information on past elections, visit Election 2006 and Election 2004.
Use the key resources below to learn more about how election 2008 is an important time to talk about fairness and equality for all.
FROM EVAN WOLFSON:
A Tearful Republican Mayor Comes Out — For the Freedom to Marry
Complete with video, Evan Wolfson highlights an emotional press conference by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a Republican former police chief, at which he announced his intention to sign a resolution supporting the freedom to marry, a reversal from his prior public opposition. Mayor Sanders said his change of heart and mind was due to soul-searching and personal conversations with gay people he knows, including his lesbian daughter, showing how powerful it is to make the conversation about real people, not just legalisms or hypotheticals. He also described how he has come to understand that his prior support for civil union, rather than marriage, was inadequate and wrong. San Diego now joins the other major California cities in calling on the Governor and State Supreme Court to follow the legislature's lead in embracing marriage equality.
Why the Dems should NOT shut up about gays and marriage
Evan Wolfson responds to August 16, 2007's piece in The New Republic, explaining that, "As public support for marriage equality continues to evolve, Democrats, thus already perceived as the party of 'gay marriage,' have a winning issue on their hands, one that evokes the best traditions of their party—fairness and inclusion. The conversation will not stop. Candidates who want to move on to other questions ought to get the freedom to marry question right—for their sake as well as the country's."
Evan Wolfson: Marriage equality and the Presidential election
David Mixner interviews Evan Wolfson on how to answer questions regarding why candidates should stand for, and be pressed on, the freedom to marry. Says Wolfson, "This election will not be decided on gays or marriage (and nor was the election of 2004). But how candidates deal with important questions such as equality, protections for all, standing up to discrimination, and the values of marriage (love, commitment, fairness, freedom) can be symptomatic of how they address dispositive questions and win over or alienate voters... They all have a chance to get this right — and we all have the chance now to help them."
Candidates' Guide on How to Support Marriage Equality and Get Elected (pdf)
The Candidates' Guide presents why candidates should support the freedom to marry not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it is also in their interest to do so, and lays out how to stand on clear principle, make the case for ending exclusion, and throw the challenge back at opponents. By following this guide, candidates in the 2008 election will reverse the wedge and reinvigorate the discussion about the basic American values of fairness and equality, our shared aspirations for a secure family life, and the pursuit of happiness, and be able to move on to other pressing issues in their campaigns.
This week's gay debate: A prime-time opportunity for straight talk on marriage
Check out the key points Evan Wolfson laid out in the Featured Post on the Huffington Post blog. It discusses how candidates should answer the marriage questions at tonight's forum, and beyond. The piece contains links to several resources to help the candidates do better — not just because it's in our interest that they get it right, but because it's in theirs, too.
Evan Wolfson on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer looks to Evan Wolfson to give John and Elizabeth Edwards' disagreement on giving gay and lesbian couples the legal protections and responsibilities of marriage some context — and included footage of the couple's couch chat with Leno. Thanks in part to Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, national attention on where the presidential candidates stand on marriage isn't going away anytime soon.
Evan Wolfson on CNN Situation Room
Evan Wolfson responds to Senator Clinton's statement on the morality of same-sex relations, that she would "leave that to others to conclude," following General Pace's discriminatory statement on the issue. Mr. Wolfson expresses hope that Senator Clinton would make her stance clear.
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WHERE YOU CAN GO TO GET INVOLVED OR LEARN MORE:
Log Cabin Republicans
As election 2008 draws near, the Log Cabin Republicans will present information about Republican candidates and how they stand on marriage equality and other gay rights issues.
Stonewall Democrats
Find your local Stonewall Democrats chapter, get involved, and learn more about the 2008 election as it approaches.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
HRC stays up-to-date on election 2008 with press releases, candidate discussions and questionnaires, and opportunities to get involved or donate to candidates who support equality.
Victory Fund
The Victory Fund endorses qualified, committed openly LGBT candidates who can win at the ballot box. Visit their site to track candidates in the 2008 election.
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LEGISLATIVE STATUS OF GAY AND LESBIAN FAMILIES IN THE U.S.:
Freedom to Marry Legislative Maps [MISSING LINK]
View and/or download United States maps tracking proposed legislation concerning marriage throughout our nation. Also, find maps showing the current status of protections for same-sex couples in our country and historical views of past marriage struggles.
Democratic State Party Platforms
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THE NUMBERS: POLLING & STATISTICS:
Presidential Candidates can support marriage and win. A March 2007 Newsweek poll of Americans reported a strong majority, 59%, of respondents said knowing a presidential candidate is a strong supporter of full marriage rights for same-sex couples would alone not stop them from voting for the candidate.
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PUBLICATIONS:
Pro-Marriage Incumbents and Candidates Win Elections (pdf)
Taking a stand to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage does not hurt incumbents or candidates in their elections. As the number of pro-marriage incumbents and candidates continues to expand, they are winning their elections at overwhelming rates. This report presents various different states', and nationwide, election results as evidence that exhibiting leadership and voting right on the freedom to marry often helps and rarely hurts candidates and politicians.
Human Rights Campaign Report Card: Where the Democratic Presidential Candidates Stand (pdf)
Learn about the stances Democratic Presidential Candidates have on marriage and gay rights.
Analysis of 2008 Presidential Candidates' Positions on LGBT Issues (pdf)
The Task Force report details Democrats' support of and Republicans' opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
Report: Focus on the "greys"
Geoffrey Stone's blog post comments on the Third Way report released in April 2007 which discusses how to move public opinion along the path toward greater acceptance of equal rights for gays and lesbians, suggesting people should focus particularly on the "grays" and emphasize legal protection and recognition.
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NEWS:
Clinton Says She Will Defend Gay Rights
Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would defend gay rights as president and eliminate disparities for same-sex couples in federal law, including immigration and tax policy. Clinton said states such as New Jersey and Massachusetts are extending rights to gay couples ''and the federal government should recognize that and should extend the same access to federal benefits across the board. I will very much work to achieve that.''
Think Evangelicals Vote in Lockstep? Meet the Routhe Family
Shifting demographics are affecting the views and votes of evangelical Christian voters, moving some to adopt more nuanced views of issues, including marriage equality. Peter Ilyan, who describes himself as a Christian environmental evangelist says, "So now when James Dobson says it's only gay marriage and abortion we should care about? One of our jokes is that gay married couples have the fewest abortions of anybody."
BLOG: Bill Clinton + DOMA = revisionism
Along with a recent video clip of Bill Clinton feeling the heat from students grilling him about his signature on the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, Pam offers a historical perspective on DOMA and what was going on at the time of the law signing, contrary to what Clinton claims.
'Decline to sign' campaign launched
A coalition of groups supporting marriage equality is asking for volunteers to help defeat an effort write marriage discrimination into the California constitution. Equality for All, a coalition of LGBT and allied civil rights groups, is launching a "Decline to Sign" campaign to discourage people from signing petitions that support putting an anti-marriage initiative on the November ballot.
High schooler spars with Rove over so-called “gay marriage”
During his controversial speech at New England prep school Choate Rosemary Hall yesterday, former Bush adviser Karl Rove was challenged by a student “to explain how giving gay people the right to marry would endanger other people.” Rove dodged answering her at first, saying that the issue “should be resolved by a legislature or a referendum, not a court.” But the student, Choate senior Marla Spivak, continued to press him.
The next 'gay moment'?
"On a recent flight across the country, my seatmates included a middle-aged couple. Like many fellow travelers in the past two years, they asked me what it meant that I wore a circular white button stating simply but emphatically in black, 'I do!'... And the conversation took a sudden and unprecedented turn. 'My son,' [the man] ventured, with a tight self-conscious smile, 'is gay. And I’m a Republican. But I’ve had employees at my company who had to go back to work, as old as I am, when their partner passed away. They had no more health insurance and no survivor’s benefits. That situation isn’t right,” he stated. 'And it needs to change.'"
Campaign frustrates
Even as they expect to support whichever Democrat gets the presidential nomination, many activists are disappointed that the three leading contenders rarely mention gay-rights topics unless responding to a question.
BLOG: Change? What Change?
Blogger Karen Ocamb writes, “The saddest part today is that LGBT people are still shooed away, still eyed with suspicion, still addressed through code words like “equality” and their representatives – the LGBT press – is still shunned --- while the candidates talk about change and inclusively. Perhaps the most painful part is knowing that the candidates are aware that the LGBT vote is the second largest and most loyal group in the Democratic Party – roughly 75% - second only to African Americans. So while the candidates court the Black vote in South Carolina as a “core constituency” – they are once again rendering us indivisible.”
OPINION: Will Sanders lead the nation on marriage?
Jerry Sanders, a first-term Republican whose chance of re-election had seemed to dim in recent weeks, may have caused a huge turnabout in current politics by siding suddenly with mostly liberal voters in deciding that gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry a same-sex partner. His action will be felt locally, of course, drastically changing the outlook in next year's mayoral election. But the news penetration he achieved elsewhere in the world suggests that Sanders' action may have a bearing on the political equation nationally as well.
Poll: Young voters disenchanted with Republican party's stance on marriage, among others
Young Americans have become so profoundly alienated from Republican ideals on issues including the war in Iraq, global warming, marriage for gay and lesbian couples, and illegal immigration that their defections suggest a political setback that could haunt Republicans "for many generations to come," the poll said.
BLOG: Winners and losers at the HRC/LOGO VisibleVote08 forum
Blogger Pam Spaulding does her usual excellent job of summarizing and commenting live from the forum. This is a must-read in conjunction with Evan Wolfson's post This week's gay debate: A prime-time opportunity for straight talk on marriage.
INTERVIEW: Elizabeth Edwards on marriage, Ann Coulter, and party politics
Edwards talked candidly about how—although she uses her husband's religion to defend his discriminatory stance on marriage—she expresses her personal support for marriage equality and says her marriage is not affected by allowing same-sex marriages.
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MULTIMEDIA:
Gay Men and Women Should Have the Same Rights
In a personal video post, Al Gore speaks out in favor of the freedom to marry. The former vice president stated: “I think that gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women, to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join together in marriage, and I don’t understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage to allow it by gays and lesbians.”
VIDEO: San Diego mayor rethinks his position on marriage
Watch this very touching video of the Republican mayor of San Diego rethinking his position on marriage, rejecting civil union, and deciding to sign, not veto, a resolution adding San Diego to the other major California cities calling on the supreme court (and governor) to support the freedom to marry. He talks about his gay staffers, and his lesbian daughter, and being unable to look them in the face and say their love is unworthy or unequal.
VIDEO: Audience boos Brownback's proposal to ban gay marriages
At the Fox News GOP presidential debate tonight, correspondent Carl Cameron asked a New Hampshire woman whether she wanted gay and lesbian marriages banned. Her answer — "Absolutely not" — received cheers from the audience. When Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) then said he believes the nation should have a constitutional amendment banning gay peoples' marriages, the audience loudly booed.
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Complete with video, Evan Wolfson highlights an emotional press conference by San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a Republican former police chief, at which he announced his intention to sign a resolution supporting the freedom to marry, a reversal from his prior public opposition. Mayor Sanders said his change of heart and mind was due to soul-searching and personal conversations with gay people he knows, including his lesbian daughter, showing how powerful it is to make the conversation about real people, not just legalisms or hypotheticals. He also described how he has come to understand that his prior support for civil union, rather than marriage, was inadequate and wrong. San Diego now joins the other major California cities in calling on the Governor and State Supreme Court to follow the legislature's lead in embracing marriage equality.
The Candidates' Guide presents (pdf) why candidates should support the freedom to marry not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it is also in their interest to do so, and lays out how to stand on clear principle, make the case for ending exclusion, and throw the challenge back at opponents. By following this guide, candidates in the 2008 election will reverse the wedge and reinvigorate the discussion about the basic American values of fairness and equality, our shared aspirations for a secure family life, and the pursuit of happiness, and be able to move on to other pressing issues in their campaigns.
David Mixner interviews Evan Wolfson on how to answer questions regarding why candidates should stand for, and be pressed on, the freedom to marry. Says Wolfson, "This election will not be decided on gays or marriage (and nor was the election of 2004). But how candidates deal with important questions such as equality, protections for all, standing up to discrimination, and the values of marriage (love, commitment, fairness, freedom) can be symptomatic of how they address dispositive questions and win over or alienate voters... They all have a chance to get this right — and we all have the chance now to help them."
CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer looks to Evan Wolfson to give John and Elizabeth Edwards' disagreement on giving gay and lesbian couples the legal protections and responsibilities of marriage some context — and included footage of the couple's couch chat with Leno. Thanks in part to Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, national attention on where the presidential candidates stand on marriage isn't going away anytime soon.
