LGBT gains in N.H. have influenced campaign rhetoric

On an overcast Sunday afternoon, two days before the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary, Heather Gibson stood outside of the Belknap Mill in Laconia, clutching a camera and a bright yellow t-shirt bearing the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) logo and the slogan "equality '08" across a blue silhouette of the Granite State. A gray van was parked nearby, ready to whisk Michelle Obama, who stumped for her husband, Democrat Barack Obama, before a crowd of about 125 inside, off to another campaign event. Several youthful Obama campaign staffers hovering near the van eyed Gibson warily; prior to the event's start they shooed her away as she passed out pro-equality lapel stickers to folks as they filed in the door. Gibson, who is the regional field organizer for HRC New Hampshire, lingered as the last of the crowd trickled out and ignored the dirty looks directed at her by the Obama volunteers. Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, a political sensation since her shocking defeat of Republican Jeb Bradley last November, emerged and, spotting Gibson, enfolded her in a huge hug. Perhaps unsurprisingly after that, when Michelle Obama made her exit just moments later, her handlers didn't interfere when Gibson approached her, introduced herself and asked if she could snap a photo of the candidate's wife holding the HRC t-shirt. Obama happily took the shirt and struck a pose. Mission accomplished.

Though brief, the exchange is symbolic of an unprecedented effort by the LGBT community to make its presence felt in the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire during this presidential election cycle. In the Granite State, for instance, HRC for the first time opened a field office in Concord from which Gibson, a veteran New Hampshire political operative, corralled volunteers to hit the campaign trail and engage candidates on LGBT issues. The organization last summer also brought a panel of LGBT military veterans to the state to discuss the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that turned out a number of local politicos. Top-tier Democratic candidates like John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama laid out their positions on LGBT issues in meetings with the New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition. And HRC, Log Cabin Republicans and National Stonewall Democrats cosponsored political events with other organizations.

"The thing that really happened is that the lay of the land for the GLBT community in these two early presidential selection sites has changed so dramatically in just two years that it really is going to change our country forever," said Marty Rouse, HRC's national field director. Just about 18 months ago, Rouse pointed out, Republican-dominated legislatures in Iowa and New Hampshire had the LGBT community in both states on the defensive against anti-gay marriage amendments. But with the investments of financial and human resources by HRC and other progressive political organizations in each state to elect a handful of LGBT-friendly candidates in November 2006, Iowa's state Senate flipped Democratic, as did both houses of New Hampshire's legislature. And rather than playing defense, LGBT activists and supportive legislators played offense, thus changing the terms of the debate: In April 2007, the Iowa legislature at long last passed a bill banning discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing and education. That same month, New Hampshire passed a civil unions law, which took effect on Jan. 1.

Against that backdrop, presidential candidates and the local elected officials supporting their candidacies - particularly those on the Democratic side - had issues around which to rally rather than run from, as was the case with the anti-gay marriage amendments that dominated much of the debate about LGBT issues during the 2004 election. Case in point: The Jan. 4 Democratic Party 100 Club Dinner, which drew more than 3000 party activists to Milford's New Hampshire Dome - the largest political dinner in the state's history, said Gibson - and featured speeches by presidential contenders Clinton, Obama, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Taking the stage with a group of Senate Democrats, New Hampshire Senate President Sylvia Larsen in her remarks to the crowd noted the new civil unions law that took effect on New Year's Day. Gibson, who attended the event, was so moved by the moment she recorded Larsen's statement in her Blackberry. As she recounted the event during an interview as she waited for Michelle Obama to exit the Belknap Mill, Gibson scrolls through her Blackberry, to make sure she gets them exact. Larsen, according to Gibson's notes, told the crowd, "We are so proud to stand here and have ended discrimination by enacting civil unions." (You can watch video of the event on CSpan.)

"And 3000 people went crazy," Gibson recalls of the crowd's reaction. "And it was just goosebumps and that moment that you think of when you're really tired and you feel like you can't do this anymore and you have to go home and go to bed, that you're not making a difference. It reminds you that you are making a difference."

Shaping the debate
Gibson began her work as HRC's New Hampshire field organizer last summer with the goal of marshaling volunteers to be visible at campaign-related events often enough "that we'd get to the point where candidates would see us at house parties, at rallies and recognize that they need to address our issues." In many cases, she said, that's just what happened. After months of meeting and talking with Gibson and HRC volunteers at his various events, John Edwards for instance, took note of two women sporting HRC t-shirts in the front row at a Town Hall meeting in Exeter about a month ago, Gibson recalled. Addressing them directly, Edwards told the women he knew they wanted to hear about gay civil rights. "And then he went in and talked about GLBT issues and issues that concern us," said Gibson.

Likewise Gibson recalls a large-scale Barack Obama event at a Laconia park last summer, where openly gay state Rep. Gail Morrison discussed her long-term relationship with Pauline Chabot - with whom she joined in a civil union on Jan. 1 - and queried Obama on whether he understood that though New Hampshire had passed a civil unions law, the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibited recognition of same-sex couples under federal law. She asked the candidate if he'd work to repeal that law. Addressing the crowd, Obama called for an end to discrimination against same-sex couples and said he'd work to repeal DOMA. The crowd responded with enthusiastic cheering and applause, both Gibson and Morrison recalled.

"I was stunned," said Gibson. "The entire crowd cheering and supporting for that one moment when we were talking about fairness, we were talking about equality. Here's two lesbians who've been together, they're sharing their ... personal story in front of all these people and then a positive response from the candidate and then the crowd went nuts. I literally went home and went, 'This is going to be okay. This job's going to be [okay].'"

Morrison, who decided to support Obama on the basis of his answer to her question, stressed the importance of publicly engaging the candidate on the issue. "I think many of us in New Hampshire understand that the greatest obstacle to advancement is people's fear of coming out of the closet," she explained. "And if we are going to make the changes necessary people have to ask those questions, especially of our presidential candidates. "As the first presidential primary state, said Morrison, "New Hampshire has this unique chance to shape the questions that are important in presidential elections. And we have received some very ... clear answers from the candidates on those issues."

Gibson estimates she engaged about 100 volunteers to support HRC's efforts in New Hampshire. That's not including random folks like the dirty-blond baby dyke Obama supporter who stopped by the office on the day before the primary and asked for a sheet of stickers to bring back to the raucous throng of Obamites that clogged the sidewalk around the corner on Concord's Main Street. But as the Jan. 8 primary drew near, Gibson's volunteers all but abandoned her to stump for various campaigns. But that wasn't a bad thing. The same folks the candidates saw on the campaign trail, wearing HRC t-shirts and stickers and asking the tough questions and sharing their stories about life as an LGBT person, were now doing phone banks and canvassing for them.

Much of this success, however, occurred with the Democratic contenders. With the Republican field, Gibson acknowledged, "it was definitely a lot tougher. I can't say that we successfully got any of the Republicans to incorporate our issues into their stump speech." Much of the work with Republican candidates involved sending volunteers to their events to tell their stories and question the candidates about their LGBT policy positions. "We did send a message to Republican candidates that New Hampshire voters care about equality, that when they go to the voting booth they're going to take those interests into consideration."

Gibson got some face time with GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee at a campaign stop in Berlin last month, just after his comments in a 1992 U.S. Senate race about isolating people with HIV/AIDS from the general population came back to haunt him. Huckabee told Gibson he was willing to meet with Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of Ryan White, who had publicly criticized Huckabee for his past statements, as well as leaders from HRC and the AIDS Institute. Though Huckabee has spoken with White-Ginder by phone, he has thus far failed to schedule the meeting.

Just one day before the New Hampshire primary, Gibson was determined to pin down the winner of the Iowa caucus and press him to follow up on his pledge as he campaigned in Concord. Gibson set out of the HRC office just after 12:30 on an overcast, unseasonably warm day and turned the corner onto a Main Street teeming with sign-shaking, screeching throngs of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Ron Paul supporters, with a random smattering of Romney and McCain folks in the mix. Reporters, photographers and TV camera operators trolled the shop-lined street, interrogating undecided voters, talking on cell phones and training their viewfinders on visuals like the white banner that blanketed the rear-end of a parked car that spelled out "McCain=Amnesty" in blue letters. Her first stop was the Barley House, a local tavern where Huckabee was scheduled for a meet and greet. The candidate, unfortunately had already come and gone, leaving behind a chef who graciously held forth for a TV camera on the ingredients of his newest menu item - the Huckaburger - and a crew of disappointed supporters and mystified reporters, among them CNN's Anderson Cooper, who were apparently unaware that Huckabee had changed his schedule.

Gibson looped through the restaurant and headed out the door and up the street to Bread and Chocolate, Huckabee's next scheduled stop. Again, no candidate, only more baffled media people and a crew Gibson identified as Edwards campaign staffers. Outside the sweet shop, Gibson paused to explain why she was in such hot pursuit of the candidate, a hardcore religious conservative. "To me, when somebody gives their word [that they'll meet with someone] they need to follow through and make sure that it happens." Furthermore, said Gibson, since she was the one who asked him directly to meet with Jeanne White-Ginder, "It's a little bit personal."

Gibson would later trail Huckabee to an evening event in Rochester where he was scheduled to play bass with the band Mama Kicks and serve up Texas-style chili with Chuck Norris, but found the atmosphere was inappropriate to corner Huckabee about scheduling the meeting. As she explained in an email after the fact, "He played with the band and there was lots of chili feed involved. I had to get to Manchester to meet volunteers."

Organizing on the ground
Beyond the difficulty getting Republicans to discuss LGBT issues more affirmatively, Gibson cites two obstacles in her organizing work. The obvious one was the difficulty of organizing activities around the glut of candidates - 15 of them for most of the campaign season. "When you wake up on a Saturday morning and there are seven candidates in town and they're all over the state," said Gibson, "it was really difficult."

Another hurdle was building a network of LGBT people in a state with no major LGBT hub. While Gibson certainly had no trouble contacting HRC members, she noted that, "We're not a major metropolitan area with gay bars and hangouts where you can go on any given Friday or Saturday night" and find a big bunch of gay people just waiting to be pressed into service. Gibson built her network of supporters through outreach to the LGBT social and political groups scattered throughout the state, through word of mouth and by meeting people at the umpteen candidate events she attended. So how many hours a week did she work? "It'd be easier to tell you how many hours a week I didn't work," she responded.

HRC, of course, wasn't the only game in town. "We're learning," said Morrison, who along with openly gay state Rep. Ed Butler revived New Hampshire's chapter of the Stonewall Democrats, a partisan LGBT organization, last June. "We aren't 100 percent there yet. But there were many LGBT folks who jumped right into the campaigns." Last November, the N.H. Stonewall Dems partnered with the national organization, the Young Democrats of America, the New Hampshire Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee to train activists at the Presidential Weekend and Leadership Training in Manchester.

"We were everywhere," said Morrison. But she adds there is more work to be done around getting gay people more actively involved in New Hampshire politics. "I'm still running into tremendous numbers of [LGBT] folks who are just barely at the voting stage," she said. After organizing a New Year's Eve celebration around the implementation of the state's civil unions law, Morrison said she was left with the impression that many of the couples who turned up for the event have not been politically active. "But they're starting to wake up to the fact that there's a reason to be involved in politics, in presidential elections," she said. "We're an awakening group up here."

Awakening, indeed. Over at Club 313, a gay watering hole situated in a Manchester strip mall, Anne and Debra Menendez were making their first foray into New Hampshire presidential politics at a post-canvassing party for LGBT Clinton supporters on Jan. 6. The pair, who were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2005, had been looking to re-locate from Dallas, Texas, after the state passed an anti-gay marriage amendment in 2006. Upon New Hampshire's passage of civil unions last year, the Menendezes decided to say goodbye to their children and grandchildren in Texas. They moved to Portsmouth in September. The couple learned of the Clinton event during a civil union celebration hosted by New Hampshire Freedom to Marry on New Year's Day.

"It was the first candidate we had seen that was doing anything to address any LGBT issues," said Debra. Earlier in day, Obama canvassers had been unable to answer Anne's questions about the candidate's position on federal recognition of civil unions. "So we came tonight because we want to know Hillary's opinions," said Debra.

Though the couple was undecided about who to support when they arrived at the event, which featured speeches by Clinton surrogates Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, a longtime LGBT ally, openly gay Congressman Barney Frank and openly gay New York Assemblymember Danny O'Donnell, that wasn't the case by the time they left. Just a few hours later they had agreed to volunteer for the campaign after being recruited by none other than former HRC President Elizabeth Birch.

Birch was apparently on a roll after having spent the weekend with a team of 17 LGBT canvassers that included Academy Award-winning producer Bruce Cohen who knocked on doors in Franklin and the Southern Lakes Region. Among Birch's tougher sells was the guy in the trailer park with the sign, "Fuck with me and you fuck with the whole trailer park," tacked outside.

"No one would go in, but I had kind of a poor raunchy upbringing," Birch related, "so I went, 'I'll go in, I know these kind of guys.'" Birch said she spent about 45 minutes with the man, talking over his difficulties making child support payments and seeing his children, who live out of state, and his concern about Clinton's position on the estate tax. At the end of the conversation, said Birch, the man told her she was the only person from any of the campaigns who had paid him a visit. "[He said], 'I don't know how I'm going to vote now.' He was with Mitt Romney when I walked in," said Birch "So I just figure maybe, maybe one more vote for Hillary."

Birch explained her advocacy for Clinton as a "life and death" issue. "At this moment of history for us it's life and death. For other people it's a wonderful privilege but for us it's literally our lives," said Birch, who points to the need for LGBT people to effectively care for their partners and children, the ongoing scourge of HIV/AIDS among gay men and the need for more research into the unique health issues that face lesbians. And there are still no protections for LGBT people at the federal level, Birch pointed out. Then somewhat ironically, Birch, whose HRC tenure spanned the Bill Clinton years, added, that, "You'll hear Clinton people try to say, 'Oh, we made such advances.' We made no advances. We got left with 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' and the Defense of Marriage Act. So were there reasons for that? Yes. However, there's cleanup to do now and we have to move forward and get laws in place."

With the political skill demonstrated by the LGBT community over the past couple years and willingness of more candidates to openly embrace LGBT issues and court LGBT support, Rouse said he's feeling confident that the tide is turning in the gay community's favor. HRC is now gearing up to exert its influence in the upcoming Nevada caucuses and the Florida primary, where it has partnered with the local LGBT organization Florida Red and Blue to do voter outreach about the anti-gay marriage amendment that will be on the ballot come November.

"There is no turning back," he said.