The Visible Vote ’08: A Presidential Forum aired live on August 9, 2007 on the TV channel Logo

Logo (TV channel)

Logo is an American digital cable television channel owned by Viacom's MTV Networks division. Launched in June 2005, the channel's programs are geared towards the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community...

. It was the first-ever live televised forum with U.S. Presidential candidates discussing solely LGBT-related issues. Logo co-sponsored the event, the first live one in its history, with the Human Rights Campaign

Human Rights Campaign

The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...

.

Format

Each candidate appeared on the program in the order in which they accepted the invitation from Logo and the Human Rights Campaign to participate. Three panelists posed questions to the candidates: Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese

Joe Solmonese

Joe Solmonese is president of the Human Rights Campaign of the United States and its affiliate the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. He was appointed to this position on March 9, 2005. A native of Attleboro, Massachusetts, Solmonese lives in Washington, D.C...

, singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician.Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals...

, and journalist Jonathan Capeheart. Margaret Carlson

Margaret Carlson

Margaret Carlson is an American journalist and a columnist for Bloomberg News.-Biography:She is best known for being the first female columnist at TIME magazine. Carlson joined Time in January 1988 from The New Republic, where she was managing editor; in 1994, she became the first female columnist...

 was moderator.

Issues discussed at the forum included same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....

, civil unions, and domestic partnerships; "Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Don't ask, don't tell

"Don't ask, don't tell" was the official United States policy on homosexuals serving in the military from December 21, 1993 to September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while...

"; employment discrimination

Employment discrimination

Employment discrimination is discrimination in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation. It includes various types of harassment....

 based on sexual orientation

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...

; and HIV/AIDS.

Attendees

Six of the eight top Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 presidential candidates attended the forum: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...

 (NY), Senator John Edwards

John Edwards

Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...

 (NC), former Senator Mike Gravel

Mike Gravel

Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election....

 (AK), Representative Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich

Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....

 (OH), Senator Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 (IL), and Governor Bill Richardson (NM). Senators Christopher Dodd

Christopher Dodd

Christopher John "Chris" Dodd is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut for a thirty-year period ending with the 111th United States Congress....

 (CT) and Joseph Biden (DE) could not attend due to scheduling conflicts.

Logo also invited Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 candidates, but they declined or did not respond to the invitation.

Several LGBT figures and allies attended the forum, including actress Jane Lynch

Jane Lynch

Jane Marie Lynch is an American comedian, actress and singer. She gained fame in Christopher Guest's improv mockumentary pictures such as Best in Show and is currently best known for playing the role of Sue Sylvester in the television series Glee...

; ex-Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Alva; comedian Alec Mapa

Alec Mapa

-Personal life:Mapa, a Filipino American, was born in San Francisco and attended George Washington High School . Mapa is openly gay and lends his support to various projects supporting the gay, lesbian, and Asian American communities...

; Noah's Arc’s Darryl Stephens

Darryl Stephens

Darryl Joseph Stephens is an American actor. He is best known for playing Noah Nicholson on the television dramedy Noah's Arc.-Early life:...

, Doug Spearman

Doug Spearman

Doug Spearman is an American actor. His career highlights include work on such television shows as Star Trek Voyager, The Drew Carey Show, The Hughleys, Charmed, Gideon's Crossing, MAD TV, Girlfriends and Profiler.Spearman grew up in Hyattsville, Maryland and attended Indiana University...

, and Wilson Cruz

Wilson Cruz

Wilson Cruz is an American actor, known for playing Rickie Vasquez on My So-Called Life and a recurring character on Noah's Arc...

; writer-director Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in...

; and actor Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...

.

Highlights

Melissa Etheridge, one of the three panelists at the forum, asked Gov. Bill Richardson, "Do you think homosexuality is a choice or is it biological?" Richardson responded, "It's a choice." Etheridge restated the question: "Do you think a homosexual is born that way, or do you think that around seventh grade we go, 'Oh, I want to be gay'?" Richardson replied, "Well, I'm not a scientist."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton faced scrutiny from gay advocates when she was asked by Joe Solmonese about her opposition to same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....

. Clinton replied, "I prefer to think of it as being very positive about civil unions." Clinton stated she fully supported civil unions that would have the full equality and benefits of heterosexual marriage. Other views on same-sex marriage included Senator Barack Obama's statement that he would "make sure the legal rights that have consequences on a day-to-day basis for loving same-sex couples all across the country ... are recognized and enforced." Senator John Edwards renounced his previous statements that, due to his religious views and Southern Baptist background, he opposed same-sex marriage. Edwards stated "I shouldn’t have said that."

In contrast to the leading Democratic candidates' support for civil unions with all rights similar to marriage, only Representative Dennis Kucinich and former Senator Mike Gravel stated their support for same-sex marriage.

On gays in the military, Senator Clinton claimed that the creation of the "Don’t Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the administration of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was initially meant to prevent a "witch hunt" for gays and lesbians in the military.