Jun 20, 2008  |  By: PETER ROSENSTEIN  | COMMENTS     

sailors to life rafts.

I may find transferring my support to Barack Obama easier because I have been on so many campaigns before. In fact I was already a co-host of a Democratic unity party at Halo last week. But let’s not forget that Clinton brought as many new voters into this race as Obama did and they need time to heal. I am aware of McCain’s positions on abortion (he is pro-life), his negative positions on most GLBT issues, his commitment to appointing judges like Samuel Alito and his flip-flops on economic issues. And he refuses to accept that Americans have finally and totally rejected the Bush war in Iraq.

BUT THE OBAMA team will have to do even more than recite that record to bring along some Clinton voters. They will need to do what Obama is doing now and that is change the rhetoric about Hillary Clinton. They can no longer seem to suggest that every white Democratic voter who was against Obama is a racist. We all know that some are but many like me didn’t support him because we honestly felt Clinton was more experienced and more attuned to our needs.

Women will have to be assured that Obama supporters recognize and respect why so many supported Clinton and then Obama will need to make commitments to women that he understands and is fully committed to moving forward on issues like equal pay for equal work, universal health insurance, appointing women to high-level positions across government and to working closely with Clinton on the issues that she has worked on for 35 years. He is a great politician and he is already doing that.

Clinton supporters, like Obama supporters, are passionate supporters of the person, not just their policy statements. These supporters recognize that Clinton has spent a lifetime working on issues like equal justice, universal health care, quality education for all children and human rights and some still feel that both the media and the Obama team undermined that history. Rightly or wrongly some continue to be offended.

We have five months to bring every Clinton supporter along. It will not happen today or tomorrow or even next week or next month. But a realistic goal must be to leave the convention in Denver as a totally united party that will put Barack Obama in the White House in January 2009. We in the GLBT community can lead the way to healing and unity.