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Kucinich: Vote for Yourself
Dennis Kucinich is the politician we've been asking for. So why aren't gays supporting him for president?
By Rachel Dowd
An Advocate.com exclusive posted January 3, 2008
Kucinich: Vote for Yourself

If you go by certain polls, Dennis Kucinich is a shoo-in for the presidency of the United States. For instance, in Democracy for America’s online poll of more than 150,000 potential voters, the congressman from Ohio took 32% of the vote -- more than Hillary Clinton (4%) and Barack Obama (14%) combined. A staggering 77% of respondents in a nationwide poll by IndependentPrimary.com choose him as the best candidate for the job; and, according to a query posed by the Virginia Democratic Party this December, 30% of the democrats in that state would back him if the primary were held today.

Of course there are other polls. Notably, the one last November from Hunter College in New York, which found that 63% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual likely voters will cast their ballots for Clinton in the primaries, followed by 22% for Obama and 7% for John Edwards. Interestingly, when asked to rank the gay rights most important to them, half of the respondents said, “legalizing gay marriage.” Not a strong point for these candidates.

Let’s review: Of the seven Democratic contenders, only former Alaska senator Mike Gravel and Kucinich support gay marriage. The rest are content with federally recognized civil unions or domestic partnerships. On other important gay issues, Kucinich, like his competitors, supports a trans-inclusive employment nondiscrimination act, a federal hate-crimes law covering sexual orientation and gender identity, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” access to survivor benefits, equal tax treatment for same-sex couples, unfettered gay adoption, and funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

But let’s say you’re like the 79% of gays in the Hunter poll who don’t consider gay rights the most important issue affecting your vote. In that case it might be important to note that Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate to oppose the Iraq war from the outset, when it was political suicide to do so. He supports not-for-profit universal health care, withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreeement and World Trade Organization until all countries agree to the same environmental and human rights standards, and raising the minimum wage. He’s pro-choice and pro–medical marijuana, and he introduced impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney.

In short, he’s the candidate we’ve been asking for. So why aren’t you voting for Dennis Kucinich?

We caught up with the candidate in New Hampshire on the eve of the Iowa primaries to ask him what he thought about being the very dark horse in the race for the Democratic nomination. 

How intimidating is it to be the long shot in the run for the Democratic nomination?

Not at all. People in the LGBT community understand what it’s like to go against the odds. They’ve been doing that their whole lives. And there are a lot of Americans that face long odds every day as to whether they’ll have a job, health insurance, education, housing. So I understand what it’s like to be a long shot. But long shots do win, and they win when people stand up for what they believe in.

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