The LGBT Community Happy to Join the Campaign for Change

I just got off a call with Joe Biden, Rep. Tammy Baldwin and a bunch of LGBT organizers from throughout the country. We're in the final week of the campaign and having our final cross-country organizing calls and heading out into the streets to knock on as many doors and make as many calls as possible.

Every vote and every volunteer matters at this point. And while I've known Senators Obama and Biden to be strong supporters of the LGBT Community and our rights, this was the first occasion I've had to hear Biden speak directly and thoroughly to our community. You can't fake this kind of enthusiasm. He was the grandfather so many of us wish we actually had. He just gets it. He gets that it is non-negotiable that our rights and interests have to be a fully included part of the vision of America. He knows how long we have worked, only to often be ignored by the politicians we support. He knows how many times we've been promised a "seat at the table," and then found ourselves outside all of the important rooms.

When the VP selection process was happening, the LGBT Community watched intensely and voiced their thoughts and concerns. We knew the importance of seeing whether or not the VP choice would be strong on our issues. I can tell you that there was a great sigh of relief when Biden was added to the ticket. He has a long history of fighting for LGBT Rights, and joins Senator Obama in seeing our well-being as being central and crucial to the well-being of the country.

Barack and Joe are opposed to all discriminatory and divisive attempts to change state constitutions in California, Arizona, and Florida. In June, Barack Obama made this opposition clear in a letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, and last week on "Ellen", Joe Biden said that if he were a California voter, he would clearly vote no on Proposition 8. Biden initiated efforts to attach the repeal of the HIV travelers and immigrant ban to the PEPFAR bill and worked hard to ensure that it passed the Senate and onto President's Bush desk. Both men have strong records of considering the needs of our community and working to protect our rights.

And then Tammy Baldwin - the first openly lesbian member of Congress! - spoke of the opportunity of this time. Baldwin served as Chair of Senator Clinton's LGBT Steering Committee and then after the primary season ended, was invited to become Co-Chair of Sen. Obama's National LGBT Steering and Policy Committee. She's a good representative of how the community has come together after the primaries to realize what's at stake in this election and the work we need to do together.

Rep Baldwin listed some of the achievements of Obama Pride during this campaign. Wisconsin Campaign for Change held a statewide LGBT Day of Action. Hundreds of LGBT volunteers canvassed and phone banked across Wisconsin and they were joined by two LGBT friends of Senator Obama, Tom Tunney and Rick Garcia, from Chicago. Obama Pride members have written over 1,200 letters-to-the-editor of LGBT newspapers in dozens of cities across the country in the last week alone. On Saturday, October 18th, LGBT volunteers from Massachusetts, Chicago, and Ohio converged on Columbus, Ohio for the largest LGBT canvass of the campaign, with over 8,000 doors knocked

Barack often says that "Real change cannot come from the top, but rather that it has to come from the bottom," and this campaign has shown that to be true. Of all communities which understand that strongly, the LGBT Community knows deeply the need for us to get engaged and to organize. From the police abuse of LGBT communities during the Stonewall Era, to the need to organize and demand action be taken in the early day of HIV/AIDS the LGBT Community has often been leaders in community organizing and political engagement.

We've never before had a Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket that was so actively supportive of our rights and understanding of how our stories and lives are so intricately connected to the story that is America.

The Supreme Court is one vote away from overturning important decisions recognizing personal privacy, like a woman's right to choose and keeping the government out of our bedrooms. These decisions protect all Americans from government intrusion - especially LGBT people.

The LGBT Community trends strongly Democratic, but it is the turnout of Democratic voters that will secure the Democratic win this November. Throughout the country LGBT Organizers are taking to the street to fight for all of our rights. We're fighting, along with a Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket, for an America in which we are fully included, and in which we realize that all of our stories are connected. If you've yet to join us in the streets, I encourage that you do. As the first openly gay elected official in the country, Harvey Milk, so gorgeously put it thirty years ago, you've got to fight and you've got to give people hope. I leave you with a video of some of his words, which still ring true today. And I hope to see you out in the streets over this next week.

Comments

[t0msman]

Thanks to Obama Pride across the country working for LGBT rights, I find it sickening that in this day and age we are still fighting to have our relationships recognized. This fight for the Presidency is the most significant in my life and of those my spouse of 18 years have faced. Thank you Tanene.