On Friday, Barack Obama’s campaign held a conference call for about 1200 bloggers, media and LGBT community members to discuss its outreach efforts for the general election. I was invited to be on the impromptu call, but it coincided right when I was on a flight. The good news is Andrew Belonsky of Queerty was on and blogged it.
What’s notable is that Obama deputy campaign director, Steve Hildebrand, acknowledged Hillary Clinton voters’ participation and importance in the primary process.
Now that Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination, however, the Senator’s campaign must do everything in its power to rally the gay troops ahead of November’s election. And, obviously, it won’t be easy and it happen over night, nor does the campaign expect such a turn around. Said Hildebrand:
We know that there are a lot of people who have supported Senator Clinton who are on the call with us today and we greatly appreciate that. We know that each of you will take your time to wrap your head around the situation, to hopefully join Barack in his venture moving forward at whatever point you are comfortable doing so. We certainly recognize the pain that goes with some of this, but know that you have a welcome home here that we need your help, that we want your help. We will take it whenever you are ready should you get to that point.
In order to stress the message of unity - and prove the campaign’s gay chops - Hildebrand then turned the call over to Elizabeth Birch, the former HRC executive director who lent her support to Clinton’s campaign.
In perhaps the most emotional explanation we’ve heard on the matter, Birch explained the significance of this election in her family, which includes two biracial twins, a girl and a boy. Said Birch, “…From the beginning had to be careful about how wildly enthusiastic we were about Hillary Clinton because, quite frankly, my little boy looks like Obama. So, it was complex and emotional.”
Andrew noted:
[W]e heard two distinct emotions in every speaker’s voice: dedication and desperation. The Obama campaign clearly understands the danger of losing gay supports – and gay supporters should equally recognize the danger of missing out on Obama.
Other points stressed during the call:
* Birch also aptly noted that John McCain does not present a legitimate pro-LGBT alternative, since he represents a continuation of Bush Administration policies and outlook.
* David Mixner (who initially backed John Edwards) and Joe Solomnese were on the call to lend their support.
* The campaign will model its game plan on DNC head Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, setting up hundreds of offices to do outreach.
* The DNC’s Brian Bond, who will be based in Chicago for the general election, will coordinate constituent outreach.
* Obama’s campaign says it is committed to placing LGBT leaders in key posts.
What I didn’t see in Andrew’s report is whether there were any LGBT people of color who spoke on that call, or whether there would be outreach to ensure that there will be visible minority LGBTs who are a part of Obama’s team. While it is important to include the well-known go-to gays already installed inside the Beltway, part of effecting true change is to recognize the talent out there that will represent the true diversity of our community.
This is particularly important as Barack Obama has been the only presidential candidate to challenge homophobia in the black church. He has done so in front of those audiences not accustomed to being challenged for fomenting bigotry from the pulpit. With that tough medicine must come the salve of visibility, because so many religious LGBTs of color are still afraid to come out of the closet for fear of being culturally and physically exiled from their communities. Many are not comfortable when exiled to the openly gay, socially and politically active community, which is still white dominated and largely insular, exacerbating the perception that LGBT people of color either do not exist and thus there is no problem to combat.
One would hope that Obama, as a perceived change agent, will address this, so that we see more color in the LGBT crowd - black, brown, yellow, etc., as well as gender and gender-identity diversity, the class divide, and regional diversity.
We have our own community diversity issues to address on that front—I’m speaking about our perceived LGBT advocacy organizations—the dearth of color in visible positions in these groups means by default that the go-to people the media or political campaigns rely upon don’t represent the diversity of the community either.
The fact is that we’re all out here, and we’re all voters—and potential leaders simply because many of us are visible. And we know that coming out and being visible is the most powerful change agent there is. How or if that diverse resource is tapped will speak volumes about whether there is real change afoot, or business as usual in our community as well.
Barack Obama’s message to the LGBT community is below the fold.
OMFG. Echidne posted a link to blinkytreefrog, who found a book from about 1951 called “On Becoming A Woman”. Which is very fortuitous, as the Human Life Alliance has put a PDF of their abstinence-only rags “Just For Girls” and “Just For Boys”, which are similar to this 1951 book to the degree that they could be plagiarists. Except I think that woman-hating, sex-phobic nuts basically eat and shit this stuff, so it’s less plagiarism and more the fiber of their beings. Shall we do a dance of comparison?
Even on a day of great unity, where Senator Clinton made a gracious and much-needed overture towards repairing the deep rifts in a great political party, I ask that none of us forget the one overarching lesson of this seemingly endless primary season.
Mr. Penn pushed for aggressive attacks on Mr. Obama, something other advisers resisted. At one point, Mr. Penn argued that Mrs. Clinton should find subtle ways to exploit what he called Mr. Obama’s “lack of American roots,” referring to his Kenyan father and his childhood years in Indonesia and even the offshore state of Hawaii, the campaign officials said. Mr. Penn recommended that Mrs. Clinton own the word “American” — she should talk about the “American century” and her “American Strategic Energy Fund,” and so forth. She should add flag symbols to her logo, he suggested.
Since I’ve been complaining about nutty websites, let me today point out that TalkLeft has returned to sanity and both Jeralyn and Big Tent Democrat have posted that they will support Obama wholeheartedly now that Clinton has officially suspended her campaign.
Exactly as Jeralyn said they would, and good for them.
Both Sara and I will be on hand to answer questions, spur discussion, and just feminist up the joint. Should be fun. I’d be much obliged if Pandagon readers could come by and ask some questions/join the discussion.
Jeebus, they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one.
[W]hen Michelle Obama threw the dap at her husband a few days ago, I prayed a tiny little pray to my good friend Jesus: “Dear Lord in Heaven above,” I said, “If you love me the way I love you, you will let crazy right-wingers totally flip their shit over this utterly noncontroversial event.”
Well, folks, I don’t know about you, but I have proof that Jesus loves me, because not only did every square-butted news magazine in America stand agog and write a hilariously embarrassing “What is this crazy Negro fist-bump, anyway?” article, but enough Fightin’ Keyboarders percieved in the dap elements of gang affiliation, foreign nationialism or terrorist sympathy to keep me in tears all weekend…
Ben Curtis, circa 2001, for president!
Read the whole thing to see the depths of a) racism and b) social backwardness on display by wingnuts everywhere.
Mighty Ponygirl has declared it National Screw While On Contraception Day. Yes, even if you’re “trying”. Or you’re in a committed and tested relationship that’s not running the risk of the big knock-up because you’re gay or sterilized or pregnant or post-menopausal or whatever. You don’t even need a partner. Wrap a condom around a butt plug and shove it up your ass. Or blow condoms up and decorate your house with them while running around naked singing filthy, blasphemous songs about how Jesus and Mary Magdalene got it on.
Better yet, show up at one of the Planned Parenthoods that have been marked for abuse for distributing contraception today with a big, fat sign that says, “Thanks for all the hard work, Planned Parenthood.” Why? Because the American Life League is protesting Planned Parenthood today because contraception was legalized after a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood after one director, Estelle Griswold, got arrested for selling contraception to married couples in the state of Connecticut. Today is the 45th anniversary of that lawsuit, Griswold v Connecticut, and the protest is, surprise surprise, based on a lie and some misdirection. ALL is calling it “Pill Kills” day, pretending that they’re out to get just the pill and that it’s because the pill is “chemical abortion”. Both of these points are lies, which are forbidden by god in the 10 commandments, unlike contraception.
Lie #1: That the decision in Griswold was just about hormonal contraception.
For that bit of correctitude, the author gets a cookie. It’s a nice cookie.
However, there’s a point to this observation - the reason that people in this age category can’t find employment as is easily is, you guessed it, the minimum wage:
Who does this age group represent? How about high school and college students coming into the job market for the summer.
And what do many such job seekers get paid? Minimum wage –which Congress increased last year from $5.15 to $5.85, and which will increase again next month to $6.55, and then again next year to $7.25.
Here’s a personal case study in how that works to squeeze workers out of the minimum wage job market:
The McCain campaign sends out “The McCain Update” every Friday night, a source of bemusement to me for no other reason than that in politics, Friday nights are when you do things you don’t want anybody to see. This week’s update is headed by a “strategy briefing” from their campaign manager, Rick Davis. By “campaign manager”, I mean “faceless raspy voice that sounds like it should have a mustache”. (It doesn’t.)
A couple of book reviews tonight for some short, funny books. First of all, Jen Sorensen’s cartoon collection Slowpoke: One Nation, Oh My God!. I met Jen at the WAM! conference, and I have to say that the arch humor she showcases in her comics is exactly how she acts in person. There’s usually some minor disconnect between what you read on the page and how someone comes across in person, but for some reason, Jen has the perfect fit going on.
This book made me snort with laughter. Seriously, it’s like the funniest comic ever. (Sorry, “Get Fuzzy”.) I made Marc look at every other comic until it became clear that it would be more efficient if he just read the entire book himself.
I enjoyed that Jen’s take on politics tends to veer towards, “Am I the only person who sees how fucked up and stupid all this is? Please tell me I’m not.” I appreciated that, for the simple reason that I often think I’m crazy, and this book reassured me that I’m not. The added bonus to the book is that with every cartoon, she has a little paragraph of thoughts, inspiration, or background, and it’s all almost as funny as the cartoons. Almost, because it’s hard to be funnier than these cartoons.
There’s a new magazine out that’s pretending to be a general interest teenage magazine, but is actually an abstinence-only propaganda rag. Guess what it’s called?
That’s right. Abstinence: It’s just for girls. I know the law makes them say otherwise when they’re peddling this shit in the classroom, but it’s good to know they don’t even try to hide their beliefs when it comes to non-government funded materials.
I love that one headline is “Top 8 Come Backs 4 Come Ons”. I’m pretty sure, “Daddy and Jesus have first dibs on my hymen,” is the only one you’ll ever need.
Update:Eh, they have one for guys. Interestingly, the cover of the guys’ magazine has them jumping around and doing stuff, whereas the girl in the cover of the girls’ one is just throwing you a “come hither” look. You know, like committed virgins will do.
At 5PM EST, 4PM Central, 
Patterico’s Pontifications notices that 
A couple of book reviews tonight for some short, funny books. First of all, Jen Sorensen’s cartoon collection 
