The Human Rights Campaign and LOGO teamed up to present the first-ever Presidential LGBT Debate. The debate will be broadcast live in front of a studio audience on LOGO, August 9th.

HRC and LOGO have gotten some praise and the event is an historic one, but not everyone is so happy.

Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) wasn’t included in the debate. Queerty quoted Senator Gravel:

That this kind of censorship should come from the community that I am the greatest advocate. It is not absurd, it’s to the edge of stupidity. That they would set up a criteria of not having enough money raised – all political scientists recognize that money is the corruption of the political system.

They [HRC] are saying I’m not greedy or corrupt enough to meet the stands set by Hillary and Obama and Edwards.

You hear Edwards saying he can’t get his arm around [gay marriage]. Is that the garbage HRC want to put before the people? It brings into question my whole judgment of the gay community. If they want to go with the links of these people who don’t deliver… If the gay community wants them, they deserve them.

Money… All about the money.

Chris Johnson of HRC’s blog, HRC Back Story, explained the way HRC went about putting together the debates and the standards they set for candidate participation:

We did make an effort to have a Republican debate as well. The Foundation’s first ground rule was that we needed to get confirmations from at least two of the top three candidates on either side before we’d proceed with any forum. On the GOP side, Mitt Romney said no — and we never heard back from Rudy Giuliani or John McCain. That’s right: no response. Furthermore, none of the Republican presidential candidates returned HRC’s questionnaire. Without any responses from any of the top three Republicans, there would obviously be no GOP debate.

Once we received affirmative responses from Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, we proceeded with working with LOGO to plan the Democratic forum. Then, John Edwards also said yes.

The other standard we set was that the candidates we invited had to have raised $100,000. On the Democratic side, that meant we also invited Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. Joe Biden, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Gov. Bill Richardson. We wanted to make sure that with the limited time we had to present this forum, our community got to hear from candidates who could actually be President. We have gotten some feedback about not inviting Mike Gravel. Unfortunately, he didn’t meet the $100,000 threshold.

So HRC wants to have “candidates who could actually be President.” Um… (1) $100,000 in the bank doesn’t gaurantee anything, in fact… that amount of money is like pennies to the folks who are most likely to be President; and (2) How can anyone seriously place Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson in the “could actually be President” category? Someone is dreaming.

$100,000 is nothing in the grand scheme of things and I honestly think this is just another time when HRC values hard, cold cash over values or principles. Secondly… if they really only wanted viable candidates, then why exclude just one guy when the poll numbers show that, without a doubt, there is no way that at least three of the participating candidates can be President.

Now, LGBT leaders and activists across the country are joining in a chorus, pleading HRC to allow all candidates to participate in the debate. Mike Gravel is one of the biggest LGBT supporters in the field. In fact, he has done all he can and more. He is almost perfect on all our issues. It is important that LGBT people see the clear difference between an Democrat who is willing to stand up for us 100% and a Democrat who will go only far enough to grab our checks and head off to the bank.

Other voices chiming in: Check it out through Google Blog Search

Also…

Contact HRC and tell them to include Gravel

You can contact HRC at hrc@hrc.org.

Sample Letter
Dear HRC,

I am writing to voice my concerns over your decision to create standards which managed to exclude Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) from the Presidential Forum planned by your Foundation and LOGO Network.

Senator Gravel is a candidate who has shown the LGBT community a great amount of support by both his words and his actions. I understand that HRC wishes to have a forum with candidates who are “viable options” for the Presidency, but the current standards managed to exclude just one person. This person happens to have given the LGBT community some of the most support out of all the candidates.

As a member of the LGBT and straight ally community – a group of individuals you say you represent – I urge you to reconsider your standards for participation in the Forum.

Thank You,

[Your Name]

Technorati Tags: Human Rights Campaign, HRC, LOGO, Gay, Election, 2008, Mike Gravel, President