Obama Gives Interview to Gay Magazine

The gay magazine “The Advocate” sat down with Barack Obama to explore his views on a number of issues. Read the interview here. Below is an interesting segment where he talks about what he’ll try to get done as President:

Question: If you were elected, what do you plan to do for the LGBT community -- what can you reasonably get done?

Obama: I reasonably can see “don’t ask, don’t tell” eliminated. I think that I can help usher through an Employment Non-Discrimination Act and sign it into law.

Question: You think it’s transgender-inclusive?

Obama: I think that’s going to be tough, and I’ve said this before. I have been clear about my interest in including gender identity in legislation, but I’ve also been honest with the groups that I’ve met with that it is a heavy lift through Congress. We’ve got some Democrats who are willing to vote for a non-inclusive bill but we lose them on an inclusive bill, and we just may not be able to generate the votes. I don’t know. And obviously, my goal would be to get the strongest possible bill -- that’s what I’ll be working for. 

The third thing I believe I can get done is in dealing with federal employees, making sure that their benefits, that their ability to transfer health or pension benefits the same way that opposite-sex couples do, is something that I’m interested in making happen and I think can be done with some opposition, some turbulence, but I think we can get that done.

And finally, an area that I’m very interested in is making sure that federal benefits are available to same-sex couples who have a civil union. I think as more states sign civil union bills into law the federal government should be helping to usher in a time when there’s full equality in terms of what that means for federal benefits.

Question: I assume you’re talking about the Defense of Marriage Act.

Obama: Absolutely, and I for a very long time have been interested in repeal of DOMA.

Obama has taken some flack the “gay press” because he hasn’t given them the access they think he should. It’ll be interesting to watch how Obama handles all of this if he’s the nominee. He’ll need to track towards the middle to win but McCain and the Republican National Committee will try and paint him as the most liberal guy out there. In addition, Obama has an appeal to some Evangelicals but too much pro-choice, pro-gay rights talk will turn them off…along with some of the African American vote.

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