Gay Democratic voters in New York and California support Hillary

For the first time this primary season exit polls tracked the sexual orientation of Democrats who voted in two states – New York and California.

Here in New York, seven percent of Democrats identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. They went for Hillary Clinton in a big way. She received 59% of the vote. Obama got 36% and Edwards 3%.

In California, four percent of Democrats identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual and Clinton’s margin was even larger. She took 60% of the vote while Obama grabbed 25% and Edwards 5%.

These exit poll numbers are not too different from the results of Hunter College poll conducted last November among likely LGB voters, although Obama did pick up some ground yesterday. The Hunter poll showed Clinton getting 63% of the national LGB vote to Obama’s 22% and Edwards 7%.

We’re glad the National Election Pool (a consortium formed by NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and the AP) that conducts the exit polls decided we existed yesterday, at least here in New York and in California.

However, I have a news flash for the National Election Pool. We don’t just cling to the two coasts in these two states. We’re pretty much everywhere so it would have been good to have the same question asked in every state’s exit poll this primary season and with both Democrats and Republicans.

Hillary or Obama? Key LGBT newspapers and bloggers across New York make their decisions

A number of New York’s leading LGBT newspapers and bloggers who have deep roots in the LGBT community have made their decisions about who they support for President. We've also uncovered the views of two who remain officially neutral, but have nevertheless shown some of their thinking about Hillary and Obama.

Here’s how it’s shaking out heading into Tuesday:

· NYC-based heavyweight newspaper Gay City News evokes John F. Kennedy in its endorsement of Barack Obama. In its print version on the page directly opposite its endorsement, Gay City News’ founding associate publisher Troy Masters cites “ideas and solutions” in writing about his support for Hillary Clinton.

· Empty Closet in Rochester hasn't endorsed, but its long-time editor Susan Jordan says the Gay City News endorsement of Obama is "troubling" and decides to post a comment on GCN's website (see comment #7). Jordan calls Tuesday's choice a “vote-for-the--lesser-of-two-evils time again.”

· NYC-based newspaper New York Blade endorses Hillary Clinton and cites experience as a factor.

· Leading national LGBT and civil rights activist David Mixner, who blogs from Sullivan County, announced his support today for Barack Obama. Mixner was once a leading LGBT supporter of John Edwards. He cites the war and the need to bring America together again for endorsing Obama.

· Libby Post, an Albany-based LGBT activist who blogs and has a syndicated column that runs in several LGBT publications, makes no endorsement but appears to favor Obama. Edwards was once her favorite.

· Blabbeando’s Andres Duque who blogs from Jackson Heights in Queens supports Obama .

The Presidential candidates on HIV/AIDS

The presidential primaries are quickly approaching, and if you’re like me you still haven’t settled upon one specific candidate yet. The polls are tightening and right now there is no clear leader in either Party’s races. This is a good thing: it forces candidates to be very clear on important issues—and that particularly holds true for LGBT issues.

Our community has played a role in this presidential election that is unparalleled in our political history. LGBT issues have been front-and-center for both parties—in debates, speeches, town halls, etc. We have demanded that Democrats and Republicans articulate their positions on issues that are extremely important to our safety, happiness and health. And in many cases (most often in the case of Democratic candidates) we have been able to move candidates when we’ve felt that they haven’t been where they need to be on issues like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and legal recognition of our families.

One issue in particular, however, tends to get overshadowed by the headlines caused by sexier, more controversial issues such as gay marriage, LGBT people serving openly in the military and the need for a federal hate crimes bill. That issue is HIV/AIDS.

Numerous reports have recently stated that HIV infections are on the rise for young gay men and gay men of color. This is a problem that is not going away. New treatments have made it so that HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence, but it is still a very serious and lifelong disease. The next leader of this country needs to have a comprehensive plan for dealing with AIDS—not just globally, but also here in the United States.

Gay Men’s Health Crisis has just put out a report that very closely details where exactly each candidate for president stands on all issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS—from the strategies used to educate about prevention to subsidizing medicine for those who are already infected but cannot otherwise afford treatment. The report is reader-friendly and hopefully will help if you have not yet made up your mind on which candidate to support on Feb. 5, 2008 (for all New Yorkers).

The report was the subject of a recent front-page article in Gay City News. In it, Duncan Osborne discusses how bad Republicans are on HIV/AIDS related policies. Republicans—closely following the Bush Administration line—tend to support ideology-based solutions instead of the obviously more effective strategy of using science-based solutions (like teaching abstinence-only curriculum versus safe-sex practices in sex education classes).

We might also add that Republicans tend to want to talk about HIV/AIDS as being something "over there" (i.e., Africa where transmission is predominately due to heterosexual sex) instead of here at home where they deem transmission pathways as being too hot to talk about on the "Pollyanna" trail of a Presidential campaign.

As far as New York’s two presidential candidates are concerned, Hillary scores towards the top of the chart, ranking among the best candidates on HIV/AIDS issues. And Rudy dwells near the bottom with his fellow Republicans. He didn’t respond to the questionnaire provided by AIDSvote.org for evaluation on this report and his record on HIV/AIDS policy while mayor of New York City was never much to be proud of.

Download a PDF of the report here.

Logo/HRC Presidential Forum is Tonight at 9PM

We’ve been providing you an overview all week long of what’s being said about tonight’s Logo/HRC Presidential Forum so we know you’re probably aware its happening from 9PM-11PM EST.

The candidates will be appearing in alphabetical order: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson.

We're very curious about how tough the questions will be and whether they'll focus on the same few issues or explore some of the community's concerns that are frequently overlooked.

If you don’t get Logo on your television, remember Logo will be streaming it live online and will have it available afterwards as well. Go to Logo’s Presidential Forum website called VisibleVote08 for details and also to made comments about the forum. Prep yourself in advance on the candidate’s positions on LGBT issues by reviewing HRC’s scorecard.

Finally, we wanted you to know the Pride Agenda has been asked to provide its thoughts about the forum in a few places tomorrow. We’ll let you know more about that in our Morning Sweep.

Tonight’s forum is a first-ever for the LGBT community and America so don’t forget to watch!

Logo, HRC to host first-ever presidential debate (discussion) on LGBT issues

So far Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have committed to participating. This is a groundbreaking event--never before have top-tier presidential candidates come together during a primary season to discuss LGBT issues.

Joe Solomonese (HRC's Exec. Director) and Melissa Etheridge will moderate/emcee the August 9 event, (a lesbian in our office wonders why the male is a political figure/advocate and the female is an entertainer...) which will be broadcast live on Logo from Los Angeles.

Republicans are also invited to participate.

Read the press release here (via Queerty)