Street Talkers: Election ’08
Age: 26
Residence: Sugar Hill, Harlem
Occupation: Journalist
Your Vote: In the Democratic primaries, I’d pick Hillary Clinton. Now I’ll wait for all the black people out there to say that I’m choosing my womanhood over my blackness! It’s not about that. I wanted to prefer Obama, but I was completely seeing it as a black-man, white-woman race, and it can’t be that way. Clinton answers questions with her intellect. Obama tells inspirational stories.
Do gay issues affect your choice? Well, I can’t say that gay issues are my only issues, but of course they play a part. I’m conscious of them, but I’m also a young person with spiraling debt, a black person in America, and a woman. My middle-class parents approaching retirement. I have to grapple with all of those identities and issues when I think about who I want to run this country.
Thirteen months from now YOU will choose a new president. So, if you know more about YouTube’s Obama Girl than you do about Barack’s policies, if you’re hot for Hillary yet don’t know her take on gay marriage, if you’re McLovin’ McCain or a Kucinich chick just ’cause you think he’s “nice,” you better start doing your research. Recently, we asked 10 of our NYC-based readers this question: If the election wree held tomorrow, who would get your vote?
Name: Betsy
Age: 22
Residence: West Village
Occupation: Photographer
Your Vote: Hillary. Hands down. As a woman, feminist, and lesbian I strongly believe in supporting positive female icons in society; especially someone like Hillary who has as much potential to change the way America works both inside and out.
Do gay issues affect your choice? Yes and no. Yes, because I believe in the values of equality and prosperity for all, but I also understand that every other aspect of politics has to work together. I would love to see gay marriage legalized throughout the United States, but I know that other changes like education policies, foreign struggles, and the environment still hold precedence within Congress and the rest of the country.
