Sen. Barack Obama
waded deep into Clinton territory Thursday evening at a
private LGBT fund-raiser in New York City where the price of
admission was $2,300 per person.
Held at the
apartment of GLSEN founder and executive director Kevin
Jennings and his partner, Jeff Davis, the event drew about
125 people and raised $170,000. No press were
admitted, but based on several accounts, attendees
were struck by the Illinois senator's candor as well
as his fluency with LGBT issues.
"I've been to many events over the past 10
years of candidates running for office," said
Corey Johnson, one of the hosts, "This was the most
forthright, eloquent, and detailed stuff I've heard
from a politician [regarding gay issues]."
Molly Lenore, 43,
compared Obama's discussion of the LGBT
community to the speech he gave about race in America
last week. "During his race speech, everybody
said afterward that he treated the American people like
adults, and I felt like that's what he did,"
said Lenore, who is transgender and an Obama
supporter. "I might not agree 100%, but I want
to have an intelligent conversation with somebody."
According to
those present, Obama spoke for about 30 to 35 minutes about
queer issues and then fielded questions, most of which were
not LGBT-specific.
Johnson, who is
25, has supported Obama for about a year but prefaced his
remarks by saying he has never been an
"Obama-phile." He said the senator
addressed some of the most contentious LGBT issues without
prompting, such as same-sex marriage and the inclusion
of transgender people in the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act. In fact, those were the two issues
Sen. Obama singled out as being potential disappointments to
the LGBT community right now, while he signaled that a
hate-crimes bill could likely be passed and signed
into law and that repeal of "don't ask,
don't tell" might be on the horizon.
According to
several sources, including Johnson and Lenore, Obama said he
did not think it was "politically feasible" to
secure marriage rights for same-sex couples in the
country at this point. Sen. Obama acknowledged that
the community wanted full marriage rights but said that he
favored civil unions for now while leaving open the
possibility that his position might evolve in the
future.
In terms of ENDA,
Obama said he supported an ENDA that included
transgender protections but that he didn't believe a
fully inclusive bill had enough votes to pass the
Senate at this time.
"I
don't agree -- I think we're much stronger
united as a community," Lenore said of keeping
transgender protections in the bill. "But I do
understand the politics and I do appreciate the fact that he
said, hey, it's not going to pass in this
political climate. Many other politicians
haven't really done that. They make decisions but
they never really address the trans community."
Should he become
president, Obama said his first three priorities would
be designing a safe exit strategy for Iraq, working on
affordable health care, and addressing greenhouse
gases and the environment.
As Sen. Obama
made his way to the door, Johnson said he asked the senator
directly to do more interviews with the gay press, citing
the fact that he has conducted only one interview with
an LGBT outlet during his presidential campaign.
"I said, 'Your speech tonight was so moving to
all of us, the way you spoke about our community. You
need to do more [interviews]," recalled
Johnson. "And he said, 'You're right,
absolutely. We do need to do more with the LGBT
press.'" (Kerry Eleveld, The
Advocate)
