Thursday, January 03, 2008

Caucus Results Tonight!


I’m very excited to watch the caucus results this evening. While I usually have politics that are too radical for the Democrats and therefore don’t vote for them, I do like “watching politics.” My online friend, Ellen, and her husband have endorsed John Edwards and over the past few weeks I’ve become more and more smitten by him (and his wife) as a candidate.

Today, I received the op-ed piece from the Boston gay newspaper, Bay Windows, by Mo Baxley, a New Hampshire state representative and the executive director of the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition. Here is a portion of what she writes,

Edwards has worked hard since announcing his candidacy for President to earn our support. He was the first candidate to publicly release the candidate questionnaire for the Human Rights Campaign; the first to publicly announce an LGBT steering committee; the first to release a comprehensive plan for addressing the domestic HIV/AIDS crisis; and the first to visit a gay and lesbian community center. The dynamic Elizabeth Edwards also became the first spouse of a candidate to speak at a gay Pride weekend - the San Francisco Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club - an event at which she declared her support for marriage equality. Edwards has also proudly and publicly dispatched high-profile LGBT supporters (like former National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director Eric Stern) to talk to LGBT voters in key early states like Iowa.

Edwards has not only demonstrated through these actions that our community is a vital part of this campaign whose support he is working hard to earn, but he has also proven that he will stand up for our community as our next president. When General Peter Pace (who was also then the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) called gays and lesbians "immoral," Edwards was the only candidate to immediately denounce and disagree with Pace's attack on millions of hard-working, tax-paying LGBT Americans. Neither Clinton nor Obama were able to do the same when initially asked to respond to Pace's hateful and very public remarks. Edwards spoke from his heart in defending our community from this vicious attack and he will do the same as our president.

You can read the full article here.

I’m hoping that tonight is a new day for John Edwards in Iowa and that he has a strong showing in the caucus. I think we would be well-served by an Edwards presidency.

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