Homosexuality the 24/7 habit
-- all homosexuality, all the time
Homosexual activity was made
illegal for a reason.
Mark my words. This is far from the
end. They will not stop until every child must give it a
try.
Gay marriage: Clooney fundraiser a hint of coming
Obama money boom
President Obama’s decision to go public in support of same-sex
marriage marked a historic moment for the presidency and the nation’s gay and
lesbian community – and also set off a torrent of fundraising appeals that
could change the fundraising math for this fall's presidential
race.
“Obviously yesterday we made some news,”
President Obama told $40,000-a-plate guests at a fundraiser at the home of
George Clooney in Studio City, Calif., on Thursday. The event raised nearly $15
million, expected to be a record.
Mr. Obama's statement supporting marriage
equality for all couples fulfills a longstanding demand of a critical group of
donors – the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community. On Monday, the
president is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser in New York sponsored by gay and Latino supporters. On June
6, he heads back to Los Angeles for a LGBT gala, which organizers say quickly
exceeded its 700-person limit after the president’s
announcement.
Gay activists are prominent players in the Obama
2012 campaign, including finance director Rufus Gifford, Democratic National
Committee treasurer Andrew Tobias, and White House social secretary Jeremy Bernard. In addition,
the president has a designated outreach team to the LGBT
community.
Some
1 in 6 of the president’s top campaign “bundlers” – that is, donors who
solicit contributions from others and deliver them to candidates – publicly
identify themselves as gay,
according to a report this week by the Washington Post. The Center for Responsive politics last fall
identified “at least 12 prominent gay and lesbian rights advocates, who
together had bundled at least $2.7 million for the Obama
campaign.”
Even before this week’s statement on gay
marriage, the Obama administration claimed “historic strides” on behalf of the LGBT community. These include
expanding federal civil rights legislation to include sexual orientation and
gender identity, ending the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law prohibiting gays
and lesbians from serving openly in the military, and directing hospitals
receiving Medicare to allow visitation and medical-decision rights
to LGBT patients and their partners.
Still, until this week, prominent gay activists
had been openly at odds with the president over gay marriage as well as over
his failure to issue a promised executive order to ban discrimination by
federal contractors over sexual orientation or gender
identity.
Moreover, this disappointment over failed
promises was taking a toll on fundraising. Overall campaign contributions from
gay and lesbian rights interest groups, directed mainly to Democrats, fell to a 16-year low in 2010 – and has dropped
even further in the 2012 campaign cycle, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.
“Overall
contributions from PACs or individuals affiliated with gay- and lesbian-rights
interest groups totaled just $590,000 so far this cycle,” according to a CRP
blog post on May 9. “Even if that figure doubles in the next nine months, it
would fall short of the $1.3 million contributed in the 2010 cycle, and well
below the $1.8 million raised in 2008.”
But after the president’s statement on marriage,
prominent gay activists predicted that the White House could expect more
energized support from the gay and lesbian community and its
supporters.
At first glance, the president enjoys an
overwhelming fundraising advantage against his presumptive GOP challenger Mitt Romney. According to the most recent reports, Obama has
$104.1 million cash on hand versus $10.1 million for Mr. Romney. But in recent
months, support from Wall Street donors has swung sharply to Romney, according to the Center for Responsive Politics –
a shift that could prove significant if the race tightens in the fall.
Skip to next paragraph Unlike Romney, Obama did not face a tough primary, yet has already spent
$89.8 million in his reelection bid, compared with $76.5 million in spending for Romney through
March 31, the latest date for which figures are
available.)
“The industry’s abandonment of Obama could hardly
be more dramatic,” said the Center for Responsive Politics in a March 23
posting. “Wall Street’s preferred candidate in the 2008 race with more than $6
million in industry campaign contributions at this point in the cycle, [Obama]
has received less than $2.6 million from the industry so far this time
around.”
Los Angeles lawyer Dana Perlman, the cochair of
Obama’s LGBT finance committee, told Reuters that he is already looking for a
bigger venue for next month’s LGBT fundraiser, which had been planned for 700
people. “Everybody wants to do something,” he said.
“The president’s support of full marriage
equality is something to be celebrated, and frankly, rewarded,” wrote lesbian
activist and Moveon.org’s campaign director Julie Rosen, in a
fundraising appeal e-mailed to some 7 million members on Thursday. “The best
way to encourage the president to keep showing leadership and taking strong
stands it to demonstrate how much his actions mean to you.” “On a personal
note, I can't tell you how deeply meaningful President Obama's statement was
to me,” she added. “With my own big gay wedding only 24 days away, it's
incredibly uplifting to know that President Obama supports my right to marry
the love of my life. That's why for the first time since 2008, I pulled out my
credit card and donated to his re-election. I hope you will join
me.”
Gay
activist and Facebook
cofounder Chris
Hughes,
who organized Obama’s online outreach in the 2008 campaign, calls the
president’s shift on gay marriage, “energizing.” “This is one of those issues
that now a majority of Americans see as a basic civil rights issue,” he said
in an interview on CBS’s “This Morning” on
Thursday.
Meanwhile, the White House as well as House and
Senate campaign committees immediately sent out fundraising appeals to help
defend the president from a backlash from conservatives on gay marriage. The
president sent out a mass e-mail to supporters explaining his decision to
"affirm my personal belief that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry,"
and ending with a "please donate today." The Democratic National Committee
revised the entry page on its website to feature this message: "Same-sex
couples should be able to get married. Stand up with the president." Then,
this option: "I'm IN."
Pressed on whether fundraising was a factor in
the president’s turnabout on gay marriage, House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi of California – an early advocate for gay and
lesbian issues in Congress – said no. “The statement that the president made
yesterday was something that was the right thing to do for our country, filled
my heart with joy,” she told reporters at a briefing on Thursday. “But I
really dismiss the idea that this has anything to do with money,” she added.
“I really do.”
Paul Cameron, Ph.D.
Chairman,
Family Research Institute
POB 62640
Colorado Springs, CO 80962
303
681 3113