Candidates discuss gay rights

LOS ANGELES – Democratic presidential contenders Thursday sought to underscore their differences with Republicans on gay and lesbian rights, but leading candidates also faced sharp questions on their reluctance to embrace marriage for same-sex couples.

In a forum focusing on gay issues sponsored by a gay rights organization and aired on a gay-oriented cable channel, Sen. Barack Obama argued that civil unions for same-sex couples wouldn’t be a “lesser thing” than marriage. He disputed that his position on same-sex marriage made him a vestige of the past rather than an agent of change.

Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ, which supports gay marriage, but Obama has yet to go that far.

“If we have a situation in which civil unions are fully enforced, are widely recognized, people have civil rights under the law, then my sense is that’s enormous progress,” the Illinois Democrat said.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said the nation was on “a path to full inclusion” but added, “In my judgment, what is achievable is civil unions with full marriage rights.”

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton echoed support for civil unions. “I will be a president who will fight for you,” she said.

Six of the eight Democratic candidates answered questions at an event described as a milestone by organizers. It marked the first time that major presidential candidates appeared on TV specifically to address gay issues, organizers said.

The two-hour forum, held in a Hollywood studio with an invited audience of 200, was co-sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group active in Democratic politics, and Logo, a gay-oriented cable TV channel that aired the forum live.

Of the eight Democratic candidates, two did not attend, Sens. Joe Biden, of Delaware, and Chris Dodd, of Connecticut.

The candidates, who appeared one at a time, took questions from a panel that included singer Melissa Etheridge, Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese and Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart.

Clinton was cheered by the crowd when she alluded to the prospect for change at the White House in the 2008 election. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards argued that Democrats must speak out against discrimination coming from the other party.

Unless you speak out against intolerance, it becomes “OK for the Republicans in their politics to divide America and use hate-mongering to separate us,” Edwards said.

All of the Democratic candidates support a federal ban on anti-gay job discrimination, want to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gays from serving openly in the military and support civil unions that would extend marriage-like rights to same-sex couples.

A majority of Americans oppose nationwide recognition of same-sex marriage, and only two of the Democrats support it – former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, of Ohio, both longshots for the nomination.

The forum brought some of those distinctions into focus.

When Kucinich was asked whether there was anything on the agenda for gay and lesbian rights he didn’t support, he paused and said, “All I can say is, keep those contributions coming … and you’ll have the president that you want.”

In a statement clearly aimed at the leading Democrats in the field, he said his support for same-sex marriage was “a question of whether you really believe in equality.”

“I stand for real equality,” Kucinich said.