Dems Get Candid at Gay Forum

Aug. 10, 2007 — -- Six Democratic presidential candidates engaged Thursday in a strikingly candid and revealing discussion about gay rights in a forum hosted by the Human Rights Campaign and broadcast on the gay television and Internet network Logo.

Margaret Carlson moderated with three additional questioners — HRC president Joe Solmonese, rock musician Melissa Etheridge and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart — who all asked some of the most difficult and probing questions the candidates have faced this election cycle.

Six of the eight declared Democratic candidates appeared, one at a time, sitting on an upholstered chair to answer questions.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was asked whether he thought homosexuality is a choice, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was asked what place he thinks the church should have in government-sanctioned civil marriages and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was asked what is at the heart of her opposition to gay marriage.

Some of the candidates appeared stunned at the pointed nature of some of the questions.

Former Sen. John Edwards appeared to be caught off guard when asked about anti-gay comments his former political strategist accused him of making in 2004.

"You have said in the past that you feel uncomfortable around gay people," Etheridge asked the former Democratic vice presidential nominee. "Are you OK right now?"

Edwards smiled and quickly said that the accusation leveled by Bob Shrum was not true. "Someone else said it. It's not true," Edwards said.

Richardson seemed to struggle to explain how he'd voted for the Defense of Marriage Act while serving in Congress. He now opposes it. He said that in his heart he's now committed to what is achievable — civil unions — but that the country is not ready to accept gay marriage.

On the question of whether people are born gay, Richardson said he's not a scientist. "I don't like to … answer definitions like that, you know, perhaps are grounded in science or something else I don't understand," he said.

Obama said he understood the plight of the gay community because he's a minority. "When you're a black guy named Barack Obama, you know what it's like to be on the outside," he said.