After courting anti-gay votes through affiliations with anti-gay preachers, and advocating segregation for gay Americans, Obama has refused to speak with the Philadelphia Gay News, one of the largest and most established LGBT papers in the country.
Unfortunately for Obama, the gay press has been operating increasingly independently of the Democratic Party as of late. They struck back and called Obama out on the carpet -- embarrassingly so.
Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, said, "Senator Obama's lack of dialogue with the local gay press is disappointing. The local gay press often is to the LGBT community what churches are to the black community."
Despite concerted efforts, Senator Barack Obama has not granted a formal interview to the Philadelphia Gay News. PGN, now in its 32nd year and the nation's most-honored LGBT newspaper, is taking the unusual step of displaying Obama's lack of communication to the local LGBT press, leaving blank space on the newspaper's front page where Obama's interview would have appeared, illustrating his lack of accessibility to the local gay press. Obama has not granted a formal interview to any local gay press in 1,522 days, when he spoke to the Windy City Times during his Senate race in 2004.
Good for them.
And to be fair to the other Democrat in the race, Hillary Clinton spoke with the PGN and pledged to eliminate unequal treatment in immigration and taxation.
Good for her (though it took her long enough to follow the Libertarian lead on these issues). We'll be sure to follow up on her commitments.
Even John McCain's campaign had the gumption to respectfully decline an interview with PGN. As their editor says:
"It's a sad day when we are treated with more respect from the Republican candidate, John McCain, than a Democratic senator," said Segal. "With McCain, his top press representative called us back within three hours. It took seven weeks for Obama's representative to acknowledge."
It's time that gay voters demand respect from candidates. Candidates who are not willing to speak to the LGBT press are showing a profoundly dismissive lack of respect for queer voters and our families. They do not deserve the time of day from gay people, let alone the continuous accolades they receive from their LGBT partisans including Chris Crain, John Aravosis and David Mixner.
We look forward to seeing the Philadelphia Gay News also interview Libertarian candidates for president, including Outright's endorsed candidate, Dr. George Phillies.
