The Gist

Much thanks to listeners re: the Logo/HRC "forum"

As many of you know by now, Mike Gravel, the former Alaska senator who is a long-shot candidate running for the Democratic nomination for president, has now been included in the Logo/Human Rights Campaign presidential forum to be held in August in LA in front of a live audience and broadcast on Logo.

This change came about only after enormous pressure from many who told Logo and HRC that it was wrong to exclude Gravel, particularly since he is the most pro-gay candidate running. Yes, he's not likely to win but he keeps our issues in the discussion, and pressures the other candidates, most of whom, unlike him, are not in favor of marriage equality. He wrote an open letter of thanks to the GLBT community.

I want to thank all of the listeners to Signorile Show as well who let their voices be heard. In the first our of the show on Friday our phones were jammed with callers who were angry about this and who were calling and writing HRC, along with the many others, organized online by bloggers, and elsewhere. By the fourth hour of the show (5 p.m. Eastern time) HRC and Logo had changed their position and invited Gravel.

Though Gravel is now included, there is still the issue of what this discussion really is, and who will conduct it. HRC and Logo in their press release called it a "forum" and didn't really spell out the program until later. Logo-owned 365gay.com, however, which had the exclusive and which defined it for the rest of the media, called it a "debate" and is still calling it a "debate," even though HRC later would describe the event as having each candidate asked questions one at time, alone -- without any exchange between the candidates. That is surely not a debate, even though Logo's own gay news site keeps calling it that.

Initially we were told the questions would be asked by Melissa Etheridge and Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign. Not that I don't love Melissa Etheridge, but this would be equivalent to the black debate being moderated by Aretha Franklin and the head of the NAACP, rather than by objective reporters (those who do not endorse candidates) from within the African-American community. Now HRC is saying that some GLBT journalists will be involved. I think we need to keep the pressure up.