Two former Congress members from Georgia are running for president: Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, who now lives in California, and Libertarian nominee Bob Barr. (Photos by AP)
As Barack Obama and John McCain rev up their campaigning and attacks on one another in the closing weeks of the presidential race, several other White House hopefuls struggle mightily to attract voters who perceive this as a two-person race.
And a couple of those longer-than-long-shot candidates hope gay and lesbian voters take notice of their campaigns and decide that their positions are more gay-friendly than either the Democratic or Republican nominee.
“Neither of these two parties supports gay marriage,” said Giselda Rendon, an Atlanta lesbian who is volunteering for the campaign of Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, a former Democrat who used to represent Georgia in Congress.
“The Democratic Party is the party of the Defense of Marriage Act, it’s the party of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Rendon said. “They use us as a bargaining chip.”
Before twice losing high-profile re-election campaigns, McKinney long received perfect scores on legislative “report cards” issued by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights group. The report cards tracked how members of Congress voted on bills relating to supporting gay rights.
McKinney was first ousted from Congress in 2002, after making comments critical of President George W. Bush shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which is what made Rendon such a strong supporter.
“She was one of the few elected officials to stand up and say something about the Bush administration,” Rendon said.
McKinney’s campaign did not respond to interview requests by press time.
During her 2004 run to get her Congressional seat back, McKinney failed to receive the endorsement of HRC, which backed former Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard, who is a lesbian and a former HRC employee. McKinney prevailed in 2004 in a landslide, but the HRC snub caused a rift between McKinney and the gay rights movement.
“I think the establishment, the mostly upper-middle class establishment, left Cynthia McKinney, but black and working class gays never stopped supporting her,” Rendon said.
McKinney was involved in another highly charged election in 2006, shortly after she was reportedly involved in a physical altercation with a Capitol Hill security guard. The Human Rights Campaign endorsed McKinney in the primary and runoff, but she wound up losing her seat to U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).
McKinney roamed the political wilderness until moving to California and securing the Green Party nomination in July, selecting Rosa Clemente as her running mate.
But Rendon and other supporters in McKinney’s home state face an uphill battle trying to help the McKinney-Clemente ticket reach the 5 percent threshold that would ensure the Green Party public funding in the 2012 presidential election, since the Green Party candidates won’t appear on the Georgia ballot.
Only McCain, Obama and Libertarian Bob Barr qualified to be on the November ballot, said Matt Carrothers, a spokesperson for Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel.
To be included on Georgia’s ballot, a candidate must be a member of a party that received at least 1 percent of the vote in the preceding election, or must submit signatures equivalent to 1 percent of the previous vote.
“There’s no chance, even if we wanted to, to get [McKinney] on the ballot,” said Rendon, who added that the campaign is set to take out advertisements in Georgia newspapers to initiate a write-in campaign.
McKinney also has no chance of getting help from her former supporters at HRC, who endorsed Obama in June.
“When we make our decisions about who to endorse, we not only take into account their strength on gay issues, but also their viability,” said HRC spokesperson Rachel Balick.
The Green Party platform includes support for same-sex marriage, hate crimes legislation and workplace non-discrimination legislation. The Green Party also believes “all persons have the right to determine their gender identity” as well as deserve legal protections.
BARR-ROOT
Gay Libertarians also hope gay and lesbian Americans thoroughly consider their presidential ticket — Bob Barr and Wayne Allyn Root — before committing to Obama or McCain. Barr, who authored the Defense of Marriage Act while serving as a Republican member of Congress from Georgia, has become an outspoken critic of the law while running for president.
“Standing before you, looking you in the eye, the Defense of Marriage Act, insofar as it provided the federal government a club to club down the rights of law-abiding, American citizens, has been abused, misused and should be repealed,” Barr said when accepting the Libertarian nomination.
Root recently rode in the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, but Outright Libertarians have yet to formally endorse the Barr-Root ticket. While opposing DOMA, Barr believes that individual states should decide whether same-sex couples should ...
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