It’s hardly a secret that I have liberal tendencies. That’s why I was so disappointed when I went to my local polling place to vote in the midterm elections this week.
The phrase “lesser of two evils” comes up a lot during elections, especially local and state-level elections here in Georgia.
To hear former Gov. Roy Barnes at the Oct. 25 LGBT Democratic fundraiser, Tuesday’s election is the most important in Georgia “since World War II.”
While that might be a bit exaggerated, it is hard to overstate the importance of this year’s state elections to LGBT Georgians — although that is not what Barnes and the other Democratic Party leaders and candidates who spoke at the fundraiser were talking about, since they managed to stand at a microphone at an LGBT event and not say the words “gay” or “sexual orientation” one single time.
Pick up your copy of the GA Voice for our guide to the Nov. 2 election, a look at whether gays are over Obama, and the best bets for the next two weeks
If given a second chance as Georgia’s governor, Roy Barnes will back a gay-inclusive hate crimes law and oppose discrimination on any basis, including sexual orientation.
“The way that I have always stated these issues is that there shouldn’t be discrimination against anyone. I believe that was shown while I was governor. I did not ask anyone whether they were gay or straight, I chose the best person and some of those happened to be gay. So I intend to do the same thing,” Barnes said during an interview Oct. 25 at a fundraiser organized by the Democratic Party of Georgia’s new LGBT caucus.
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, Georgia Labor Commissioner Mike Thurmond and airline pilot Chuck Donovan participated in a debate Sunday sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club. All three are running for Isakson's U.S. Senate seat.
The debate, the first and only scheduled debate where all three candidates will appear, largely focused on health care and government spending but did address the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy after panelist Meredith Anderson, from Augusta news WRWD-TV, read a question submitted from one of her viewers regarding the policy.
The Democratic Party of Georgia will host two events geared toward the LGBT community this month in an effort to energize gay and lesbian voters ahead of the November 2nd midterm elections.
On Oct. 20, DPG will host a candidate mixer and meet-and-greet at Amsterdam Atlanta. The event is being held in combination with the Atlanta Stonewall Democrats from 6-8 p.m. and will allow attendees to engage candidates endorsed by Stonewall as well as pro-equality incumbents.
Carl Paladino, a candidate for governor of New York, made a few comments in recent days that have come off sounding just a bit, well, homophobic. Paladino, a Republican, is running against Andrew Cuomo in a not-so-hotly contested race.
Paladino made a statement to a group of Hasidic Jews saying that single mothers and gay men and lesbians should not teach in public schools. He also said that children would be much better off, more successful, if they “get married and raise a family.”
A Facebook page created by Georgia Equality, the state’s largest LGBT political group, asks Georgians to pledge to vote against Republican candidate Nathan Deal in the governor’s race.
Deal, a former congressman, faces Democrat and former governor Roy Barnes and Libertarian John Monds on the Nov. 2 ballot.
“If elected Governor, Nathan Deal would be a danger to the well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Georgians. He has already run the most anti-LGBT campaign in Georgia history and hopes our community and our allies will be so discouraged we will not vote in November,” the pledge states.
“Don’t let his brand of politics keep you from voting on election day, too much is at stake.”
Georgia Equality announced today some of its endorsements in the Nov. 2 election, saying it would make more endorsements in the near future.
“The endorsed candidates below have demonstrated their support of the LGBT community and they need your support now,” said Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, in a press release about the endorsements.
Voters can cast their ballots starting today leading up to the Nov. 2 general election in each Georgia county.
More than half a million Georgia voters cast early ballots in 2008.
“We want to put as much information in the hands of the voter as we can, in an easy-to-use format,” Secretary of State Brian Kemp said in a press release regarding early voting. "The goal is for every voter in the State of Georgia to have the information he or she needs to be able to make the voting process work for them."
Voters will have the opportunity to elect a new governor as well as one of two U.S. Senate positions in state-wide races.
Georgia politicians resorting to gay-baiting in their campaigns sometimes seems as seasonal as the Dogwood blossom, and after being in full bloom during the Republican primary for governor, anti-gay tactics may not return for this fall’s general election.
“I don’t perceive [gay issues] as being an issue in this race, moving forward,” said Brian Robinson, spokesperson for former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, who won the Aug. 10 Republican runoff after running weeks of television commercials attacking former Secretary of State Karen Handel for supporting gay rights when she ran for Fulton County Commission in 2002 and 2003.
“We were in a very hard-fought campaign [against Handel], and we just, we had to fight,” Robinson told the Georgia Voice. “We were focused on talking to Republican voters in the Republican primary, and we were focused on communicating a message that Nathan Deal is the true conservative, and he has been unwavering in his principles.”