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Report: Democrats Will Dedicate an Entire Debate to 'LGBTQ Issues'

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Democratic presidential contenders are being invited to a debate this fall that will focus on nothing but LGBTQ issues, according to a new report.

The debate is sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which hosted similar events in 2008 and 2004, according to The Advocate.

The report said that the event will take place in Los Angeles on Oct. 10, the day before National Coming Out Day.

Key issues to be raised include conversion therapy restrictions, hate crimes and transgender rights.

Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Chad Griffin told The Advocate that the event is designed to have candidates recognize the power of LGBTQ voters to act en masse.

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“Millions of LGBTQ people will have their rights on the ballot in 2020 — but today we are also a powerful voting bloc that will help determine the outcome,” said Griffin.

One debate designed to focus on the issues of one group is in line with the overall Democratic theme of making identity politics a major part of the 2020 campaign.

“The Democratic Party is increasingly a party of nonwhites and white racial liberals. To get out of a Democratic primary, you have to be explicitly credentialing your support for these identity-based issues,” said Michael Tesler, who helped write “Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America,” according to National Public Radio.

“There just can’t be any blurriness … You got to call a spade a spade in 2020,” DeJuana Thompson, creator of Woke Vote, which focuses on mobilizing black voters, told NPR.

Have the Democrats gone overboard on identity politics?

But dicing and slicing the electorate has pitfalls, one pollster suggested.

“It is a good mechanism to win an election, but it’s also effectively destroying the unity in the country,” said Republican pollster Frank Luntz.

“The problem is that … you, in essence, declare war on other groups to talk about how you’ve been victimized,” he said.

Some Democrats are also not sold on the party’s emphasis on identity politics.

David Betras, chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party in Ohio, said the economy matters more than identity.

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“We’re twisting ourselves into knots talking and over-talking about these issues. If you’re a working person — and it’s not just white men, I hear from all working people — we’re not talking to them,” he said, according to a February story in The Washington Post.

In looking at the 2020 campaign, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker in February noted the difference between identity and identity politics.

In the column she noted that the all-LGBTQ city council of Palm Springs, California, was threatened with a lawsuit over racial diversity.

“But so goes identity politics: Everybody wants a seat at the table, and then somebody doesn’t like the table,” she wrote.

“By some measures, Palm Springs represents the zenith of identity politics. Hey, hey, we’ve transcended sexual identification as a barrier to full societal participation!. ‘Coming out’ was crucial to the gay movement and, perhaps, it still is.

“Far more noteworthy, however, would be not knowing such personal details, suggesting a truer transcendence, as well as respect for privacy — and, not least, one’s right not to know,” Parker wrote.

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Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack can be reached at jackwritings1@gmail.com.
Location
New York City
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Foreign Policy, Military & Defense Issues




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