June 20, 2010 05:27 AM UTC

How Not to Make Friends in the GLBT Community

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• by: MJD

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

You’re running for statewide office as a Democrat, and you have the opportunity to attend an event with 250,000 people. It is the largest outdoor event in the state, and attracts voters from across the state. Sounds like a great opportunity to connect with voters, right?

Not according to Andrew Romanoff, Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper, Cary Kennedy, or Bernie Buescher. If you go to any one of their websites right now, you’ll find these candidates hyping all sorts of events, from a meet-and-greet with Mayor Hickenlooper in Ridgway to coffee klatches with Andrew Romanoff. But what you won’t find is any acknowledgement of the largest event in the state, nor any information on how you can help your favorite candidate get the word out at that event.

So I have to ask myself, “why is that?”

If there were a gathering of 250,000 Latinos or African Americans, don’t you think the candidates would be publicizing that on their websites? How about 250,000 regular Coloradans? You know that would be huge. Not mentioning it or organizing around it would be like ignoring the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

But, for some reason, this very real event seems to be perfectly OK to ignore. What is it? the 35th annual LGBT PrideFest, of course.

I remember a time not long ago when the only politician who would show up at PrideFest was Pat Schroeder. No other politician, Democrat or Republican, would come within 100 yards of our festival. But times have changed, and you’re now likely to see a three-block long contingent of Democrats. You might even see a Republican or two (but not likely) marching for gay pride.

Yet it seems that the candidates don’t want the public at large to know they’re courting the gay vote, and they don’t seem to be interested in succeeding at courting the gay vote.

I’m here to tell you that I’m glad you show up. But showing up is not enough. Gay people form the backbone of your volunteer corps. There was a time recently when gay people on the staff of the Colorado Democratic Party outnumbered straight people. The two largest Democratic political donors in the state are gay. And you all seem to want to keep it a secret that you’re going to PrideFest. Why?

I do not believe it was a conscious decision on the part of the campaigns to adopt a public posture that gay people are icky. But it was an unconscious one, and that is the posture I see. It is reflective of a lack of staff diversity on all of these campaigns, which manifests itself as latent homophobia.

And it’s not just the websites. I’m on all of the campaigns’ press lists. I get their press advisories. Yesterday I learned that Senator Bennet was nailing solar panels onto a house, and Mayor Hickenlooper was finishing up his campaign swing through SW Colorado. But none has sent an advisory about their attendance at PrideFest, or where people can find them if they want to march with them.

The one campaign that gets honorable mention here is Stan Garnett. He has his Twitter feed on the front page of his website, and his campaign tweeted about it. Now to be fair, a couple of the other campaigns also tweeted, but none have their Twitter feeds on the front page. I had to go looking for tweets because I didn’t happen to be looking when their messages went flying by with the hundreds of others.

So if you are going to PrideFest and you want to march with a candidate, march with the only one who found it acceptable to have his presence at PrideFest seen on his website.