The Visible Vote '08 -- Mike Gravel

Sen. Mike Gravel began the night by thanking the Harvey Milk Club, and gay groups in NYC and San Francisco for putting pressure on HRC to include him in the Forum. Gravel had not initially been invited to participate by the Human Rights Campaign, and Gravel thank HRC's Joe Solomonese for his change of heart.

The first question to Sen. Gravel came from Melissa Etheridge, who began by saying "you are unusual for your generation of straight, white men. You actually support same sex marriage. How do you speak to men of your generation, about your issues, to convince them?

Gravel responded: "About my generation, most of them are wrong. Dead wrong." He went on to say, "when I was a kid there was a lot of homophobia around. I can recall when the gay issue was what, 55% opposed 40 % for, and low and behold now if you are talking about the gay issue general it's probably 55% almost 59% for, and the rest are in the dust bin of history. The same thing is going to happen with the marriage issue ... I'll make you a promise, five years from now the marriage issue will be a non-issue in the next presidential campaign. It's that simple."

Etheridge ask if there were any gay people in Alaska, and Gravel said "of course."

Margaret Carlson asked if popular culture had changed enough that you put marriage equality up for a popular vote and it would win?

Gravel responded: "I think so. The American people basically have got an underlying sense of values and fairness. What happens is we have a leadership that demagogues the issue -- who can't quite get their arms around the issue, and will give you an argument that their morality doesn't permit it, or it's a political argument.

"I want to share some advise with the gay community, and that is when people like myself or Dennis move the ball down the court a little bit that benefits the gay community. And it's sort of ironic that we see the gay community be supporting people like Hillary, Obama, or Edwards who for some reason can't get their arms around marriage. I stop to think, what is marriage? And I resent religion saying that it's a religious term, it's not. Marriage preceded all forms of religion in civilization. Marriage is a commitment between two human beings in love ... and understand me, they can be heterosexual, they can be two lesbians, they can be transgender, they two gays. It's a commitment of two human beings in love and if there's anything we need in this world it's more love."

Jonathan Capehart asked why does the gay community support Hillary, Obama or Edwards, and why are they ahead of you?

Gravel replied that he thought it was because they were "playing it safe." That they are not going to lose any votes for not being for same-sex marriage, no matter what their excuses are, they will get away with it. This is costing votes for us (he and Kucinich), but "I don't care. I don't want those votes."

"You want to know the difference? It's plain as the nose on your face ... what you are experiencing is politics as usual. And a gifted politician can tell you this -- and I don't mean this humorously, I mean this very accurately -- a good politician can tell you to go to hell, and make you look forward to the trip."

Joe Solomonese asked "what are you the most proud of in your career?"

Gravel talked about the first piece of legislation he got through as a freshman state legislator, and it was a human rights commission of Alaska that helped the black and gay community. He then talked about what it means to be a leader. That you stand up for what you believe in, even when people call you crazy. And, if you live long enough they look back and say "my God, was he a courageous leader."

Twice Gravel said "when you use your capital [to get something you believe in accomplished] you get more. When you win, more capital comes to you."

Gravel closed by saying: "I have worked all my life on this issue. I've advocated for gays to come out of the closet, please. Some people can't pay the price, but there's one thing that counts -- you've got to assert your rights. Nobody is going to give you anything from on high, it just does not happen that way in a system of representative government. So you have to step forward, and I'll be happy to step forward with you as I have all of my life. And I promise you one thing, if you stand up for me -- and I need your support -- I want it, I'm begging for it, because I will do more for your cause than any other human being that walks the earth as your president.