The Episcopal
Church's first openly gay bishop endorsed Sen. Barack Obama
for president on Thursday in Concord, N.H., even though they
don't share the same views on issues critical to gays
and lesbians.
''Frankly, I
don't think there's any major candidate that is where we in
the gay community would hope they would be on our issues,''
V. Gene Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire, said
in a conference call with reporters. ''That being
said, I would say the senator has been enormously
supportive of our issues. We appreciate his support for
civil unions.''
The continuing
repercussions from Robinson's 2003 election as bishop of
New Hampshire threaten to break up the worldwide Anglican
Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is part. His
supporters hail him as a role model and civil rights
pioneer.
He stressed that
his endorsement was as an individual, not as bishop.
''I will not be
speaking about the campaign from the pulpit or at any
church function,'' he said. ''That is completely
inappropriate. But as a private citizen, I will be at
campaign events and help in any way that I can.''
Robinson said he
hopes to persuade Obama to embrace marriage for gay and
lesbian couples. Obama supports civil unions and rights for
gay couples but stops short of supporting same-sex
marriage.
Robinson, a
registered Independent and opponent of the war in Iraq, said
he was drawn to Obama because of the Illinois senator's
experience with racism and discrimination, which
Robinson also has experienced.
''I think it
would be hard to be a person of color in this country and
not be on the receiving end of that,'' he said. ''I think we
make a mistake when we think there has to be an act of
hatred from one person to another for racism to occur,
where our whole culture is set up to benefit one race
over another.'' (Philip Elliott, AP)
