As someone who has spent thirty-six years fighting for equality for LGBT people, I want to explain to you in very personal terms why I think this election will be by far the most crucial the LGBT community has ever faced.  My involvement in the struggle for LGBT justice dates back to 1972 when I lobbied the Eugene city council and the Oregon legislature for a LGBT civil rights bill.  In 1980, I co-founded the Human Rights Campaign Fund to raise money for gay supportive congressional candidates (there weren’t many back then).

When HRC was founded, we dreamed of a day when our nation would pass sweeping federal civil rights legislation aimed at protecting our community.  Almost thirty years later that dream remains unfulfilled and yet today we are closer than we have ever been to success.   For the first time in our nation’s history we have a LGBT friendly U.S. House and Senate.  All we need now is a progressive and fair minded President to join with the Congress in championing our cause.  Senator Barack Obama will be that President.

I say this with confidence because I have gotten to know Senator Obama well over the last year and a half.  I am a member of his national finance committee and on a variety of occasions he and I have spoken about GLBT issues.  Each time I have been impressed by his breadth of knowledge and emotional commitment to our issues.  As a minority he understands the pain of oppression,  as a constitutional law professor he understands our nation’s mandate of equal protection and as an American he understands that none of us are free until all of us are free.  In the words of Senator Obama “While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It’s about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect.”

Senator Obama represents authentic change for our community and we must seize the opportunity to have him as our next President. To understand the stakes, all you have to do is look at the last eight wasted years.  Instead of leadership we got a President who sabotaged every effort to advance our rights, a President who scapegoated us, a President who used our community as a whipping child to distract the nation from his own incompetence.

If we elect John McCain this fall, the waste will only continue.  Just click here to compare McCain’s stances on the issues we care about to Senator Obama’s.  The difference between these candidates is as clear as it is profound.  With Obama we can get everything we have been working for over the past three decades, while with McCain we may get none of it.

And it is not just GLBT issues that we must care about come November.  There is so much more.  If McCain is allowed to fill the next few vacancies to the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade will be no more.  The liberal justices are aging (the oldest is 88) and some are ill. Just one more Alito or Scalia and the right to choice will be gone.  We cannot let this happen.  For the future and sake of our community, Obama must win.

This blog was created with that purpose in mind.  It will have up to the day information, videos, facts, and commentaries on Senator McCain and Obama relevant to the LGBT community.  My hope is the LGBT community will find it a helpful resource as together we convince our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers to work and vote for Obama this fall.

So please visit this site often, learn the facts then give all you can to the Obama campaign both financially and otherwise.

Together, we can make a difference.

In Hope and Victory,

Terry Bean