Contenders for the presidential nomination will partake in a live forum to be co-presented by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Logo on August 9 in Los Angeles. The one-hour forum, which begins at 9pm ET, will be broadcast live on Logo and streamed on the network’s Web site.
As of press time, Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson have accepted invitations to participate in the forum. HRC and Logo report that they also invited Republican candidates to a separate forum, but nixed the idea when none of the leading candidates agreed to join.
When HRC and Logo first announced the Democratic forum on July 10, only “leading candidates” Clinton and Obama were mentioned. Shortly thereafter, other candidates were included, and Gravel only received his invitation later after making a complaint. The former U.S. Senator from Alaska, who wields a progressive voice on LGBT matters, initially was told he did not meet the fundraising threshold of $100,000.
Forum participants will appear sequentially, and talk with co-panelists Melissa Etheridge and Joe Solmonese, president of HRC, about pressing LGBT concerns such as relationship recognition, marriage equality, hate crimes, workplace fairness, the military, HIV/AIDS and other important issues.
Questions from viewers may be submitted ahead of time on the co-presenting organizations’ Web sites.
