Obama Makes Gay Push, Hillary Pushes Back

Barack Obama’s troops have been making a push in the LGBT communities of both Ohio and Texas to cut into Hillary Clinton’s long-standing support among gays and lesbians before Tuesday's critical primary vote.

“Our goal was to really deputize the members of our steering committee to organize our community in the major metropolitan areas of those states,” said Eric Stern, an Edwards-turned-Obama supporter who has been overseeing LGBT field organizing in Ohio and Texas for the Obama campaign. Polls show the two candidates in a statistical dead heat in Texas, while Clinton has anywhere from 5- to 10-point edge in Ohio.

Comparing their strategy to the Bush/Cheney get-out-the-vote efforts in Ohio in 2004, Stern said the Obama camp has identified local LGBT folks to work gayborhoods such as Montrose in Houston and the Short North in Columbus.

“What they did, that we’re now doing, was they deputized local people to go door-to-door and serve as precinct captains, while the Kerry campaign was sending people from out of state into Ohio to run the ground game,” he said, adding that he believes that’s why the Democrats lost the Buckeye State in 2004. “Ultimately, if you’re talking to an undecided voter, if you’re their neighbor down the street, they’re more likely to listen to your argument and be persuaded by it. We’ve learned from that.”

But just as quickly as Obama has been striking, Clinton has been swinging back. No sooner had his campaign secured four full-page ads in four separate gay weeklies in Dallas, Houston, Columbus, and Cleveland, than she had conducted a conference call with reporters from three of the same weeklies. The Clinton camp also announced the formation of a 38-member LGBT steering committee in Ohio last week.

And in Houston – which has the 10th largest gay population in the nation – after the city's nonpartisan GLBT caucus endorsed Obama last week, Clinton spent 20 minutes of her Friday evening answering questions from the Houston Stonewall Democrats, who endorsed her on Saturday.

“It’s an exciting time down here in Texas, the most exciting in my lifetime,” said 45-year-old Teresa Herrin, president of Houston’s Stonewall chapter, her voice cracking from the strain of too much politicking. Herrin said they extended an offer to both candidates to speak with their five-member executive board but that the Obama campaign finally declined the offer at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning.

“One of our members is a strong Obama supporter, so it was really disappointing,” Herrin said.

In terms of the Clinton call, Herrin added, “What really surprised us was her passion – that she understood the immediate need for our community.”

Within the first 100 days of her presidency, Herrin said, Clinton promised to extend benefits to all same-sex couples who work for the federal government with an executive order, end “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and use the bully pulpit to advocate for a fully inclusive ENDA and a fully inclusive hate-crimes bill. (Herrin and her executive board were not clear how Sen. Clinton would end “don’t ask, don’t tell” – if by executive order or some other means.)

Clinton also discussed how adamant she is about allowing everyone in America to adopt children if they are a qualified couple. “It was like she was indignant,” Herrin said of Clinton’s manner while talking about same-sex couples’ adoption rights. “Her voice just really changed, and that was the part that surprised us – her passion.”

On the Obama side, Randall Ellis, chairman of the senator’s Texas LGBT steering committee, is equally as enthused. “As Texans, we’re used to being told, ‘This is your nominee, this is who you need to support,’” said Ellis, who was quietly backing John Edwards until he dropped out of the race. “People here aren’t used to being asked the question, ‘Who are you supporting in the primaries?’ We really don’t know what hit us – all the sudden we’re a campaign stop.”

When the Obama campaign came knocking, Ellis, 38, was already engaged in reelection campaigns for two of the LGBT community’s “biggest allies” in the Texas state legislature, Reps. Garnet Coleman and Jessica Farrar. “They’re often vulnerable because they take stances on LGBT issues, and so people challenge them in primaries,” Ellis explained.

Ellis weighed his options for a couple weeks and ultimately decided to go with Obama, partly because of his stance for full repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (Clinton supports partial repeal), but there was something more.

“It’s that certain je ne sais quoi,” Ellis said. “The people that you look at as a leader need to give you that sense of inspiration and hope, and that certainly is evident in the Obama campaign. People play that off like it doesn’t mean anything. But I think it means a lot.”

Ellis organized people this weekend to canvass in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. According to estimates by demographer Gary Gates at the Williams Institute, that zip code, 77006, has a GLB population density of about eight times the national average – almost exactly the same density as New York’s Chelsea district, while San Francisco’s Castro holds about 20 times the national average.

After meeting up Saturday at the Starbucks on Montrose Blvd., the uniformed Obama volunteers dispersed to cafes, bars, and street corners, initiating one-on-one discussions and asking passers-by: Are you voting for Obama? Are you going to caucus? Have you told your friends?

Rebekah Lee, a volunteer from Bellingham, Wash., employed technology to give on-the-fence-voters a reason to consider Obama – using her cell phone, she pulled up a copy of Obama’s recent open letter to the GLBT community posted on Bilerico.com. “I really believe in Barack for our time,” said Lee. “He’s not afraid to answer a question with an ‘I don’t know’ or give you the tough answer. I can tell Barack wants the office to be able to serve people.”

And just as Montrose was on fire with activity, so was the Short North in Columbus, where a gallery hop that attracts thousands of people ensues the first Saturday of every month. According to locals, Columbus has the second-largest Pride celebration in the Midwest behind Chicago.