Presidential contenders get their gay on in Boston

First, an example of the hazard of hosting a political event in a bar smack dab in the middle of summer: As the Logo - Human Rights Campaign (HRC) televised presidential forum wrapped up on Thursday night, over at Club Caf?, a bearded guy clad in a blue Izod shirt, shorts and clutching an Amstel Light leaned over and asked a female patron with shoulder-length blonde hair and wearing an orange T-shirt, "Is this a bar or a political event? I don't get it." The woman, somewhat tersely, responded that that the crowd had been watching a presidential forum devoted to LGBT issues. "Is it over?" asked Blue Izod. "Yes," replied the woman. "Oh, thank God," he said.

But really, Blue Izod's apolitical attitude was the exception at the South End club. The two back rooms of the club were packed to gills with crowds that spent most of the evening with faces upturned toward the multitude of TV screens mounted high on the walls, watching six of the eight Democratic candidates - Sen. Hillary Clinton, former U.S. senators John Edwards of North Carolina and Mike Gravel of Alaska, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Barack Obama and New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson - field questions from panelists Jonathan Capeheart, an openly gay Washington Post editorial writer, lesbian rocker Melissa Etheridge and HRC President Joe Solmonese.

But despite opportunities for cheering, like when Edwards unequivocally stated he'd support a transgender staffer who wanted to transition on the job, or jeering - Richardson's statement that being gay is a choice was surely a worthy moment - the crowd was pretty subdued. Maybe it's that the Club Caf? crowd was mostly Democrats; a half-hearted chorus of booing rang out when the forum's moderator, Bloomberg News columnist Margaret Carlson, noted that the Republican candidates had all declined invitations to participate in a similar forum. And even though neither of them strayed from their previously stated positions on LGBT issues, frontrunners Clinton and Obama commanded the most attention from the crowd. By contrast, the long-shot Gravel's 15 minutes on the hot seat were all but inaudible over the din of the uninterested audience. It's too bad, since we did catch the part where Gravel, who supports marriage equality, bluntly criticized the frontrunners for "playing it safe" by only supporting civil unions. "They're not going to lose any votes [by] not supporting gay marriage," Gravel said of his opponents. "It's costing us votes because I do support it. I don't care. I don't want those votes." We're sure the rest of his interview was equally entertaining. Alas, there's always YouTube.

Queer scenester Aliza Shapiro also found the club environment a distraction from the discourse. "I don't usually go to bars to watch TV," said Shapiro during an interview outside the club, "and so trying to pay attention to what was happening on the TV ... I just wish I had some Ritalin. I just couldn't pay attention." That said, she also admitted she wasn't much interested in the issues that were being addressed, namely all of the focus on marriage. "If they want to talk about giving tax breaks to single women with three kids? Sure talk about that, that's a queer issue," said Shapiro, who pointed out that there are single lesbians and gay men who are raising children. "It's just not a topic for me," said Shapiro of marriage equality, though she would have liked the candidates to address the inability of some transgender people to marry because states won't legally recognize their gender change. Given that LGBT Americans are unable to sponsor their foreign-born partners for U.S. citizenship, Shapiro also would have liked the candidates to address immigration issues. "Immigration for queers is a really big issue that wasn't discussed," said Shapiro.

Rusty Phillips, a Boston medical resident, called the forum historic. "Just the fact that people are talking about transgender rights and gay marriage and things that ten years ago were unheard of as a dialogue in this country," said Phillips.

A similar forum hosted by HRC in advance of the 2004 presidential election also attracted all of the major Democratic contenders and was aired on C-SPAN. But that event, unlike the Logo-HRC forum, received far less media attention.

Phillips said he was impressed by the "honesty and direct answers" from the candidates, especially Clinton, Edwards and Obama. "[They] answered the questions very directly and were very steadfast in their opinions about human rights and gay rights," Phillips opined. "It was very encouraging, very hopeful - very unexpected even." He's just wary of the candidates' words being used against them later on. "I just hope that what they said will resonate well with the entire country and not be used against them in any way by our opponents in the Republican community especially," said Phillips.

But was Phillips, who confessed he doesn't follow politics closely, inspired to support a particular candidate after viewing the forum? "Um, actually I don't think so," he said.

Tom Lang was similarly uninspired by the frontrunners because none of them supports marriage equality. Lang, the executive director of the pro-equality organization KnowTheyNeighbor.org, said that his ultimate decision on whom to vote for in 2008 will not be based on their position on LGBT rights. "It'll be based on other issues," said Lang, "which is unfortunate."

Even though he was happy to see the forum end, Blue Izod seemed to have taken a shine to Clinton. He asked the blond-haired woman, who was sporting a Hillary '08 sticker, if he could have one, too. Gesturing toward the Clinton campaign volunteers who were camped out near the doorway - and likely thankful for the chance to get rid of him, she said, "Over at the table."