Voting bloc party: how did the Democratic Party measure up in courting gay voters this election?

Dining last year's run-up to the presidential primaries, Democratic candidates from Howard Dean to Al Sharpton spoke openly in favor of gay equality and courted gay and lesbian voters at events big and small.

Then came the Democratic National Convention in July, at which gays and their issues were nearly invisible. And after John Kerry, was nominated he said very little about gay rights at campaign stops or in interviews, with the exception of a September Q&A with The Advocate. What changed? "Democrats walk a fine line on social issues," argued Donald Haider-Markel, a political science professor at the University of Kansas. "Alienating moderates on social issues is one of the Democratic Party's biggest fears."

Steve Elmendorf, Kerry's openly gay deputy campaign manager, disagreed, saying that the nominee's lack of attention to gay and lesbian rights during the campaign had less to do with keeping conservative Democrats on board than it had to do with demographics. "In the primaries, there were nine Democrats out there actively courting the community," he said during the final days before November 2. "But we're in a different phase of the campaign. You don't have to spend a lot of time wooing the gay vote."

Many gay rights leaders agreed. "We haven't seen much focus by the campaigns on any particular demographic group," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "The focus has mostly been on the big national issues." The most important work, he noted, continued on a grassroots level. Foreman's group and others were very active in registering gays and their allies to vote. According to exit polls, about 4 million self-identified gay and lesbian voters turned out in 2000. "Our challenge is to become an even greater voting bloc," said Cheryl Jacques, executive director of the gay advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.

Indeed, despite Kerry's low-profile approach to gay rights, there was some notable Democratic outreach this year. A July fund-raising dinner with gay supporters in New York raised $1.8 million for Kerry and the Democratic National Committee, and Kerry's wife, Teresa, and daughter Vanessa spoke out on issues important to gay voters while participating in gay-targeted events. DNC spokesman Brian Richardson highlighted the joint Kerry campaign-DNC Pride at the Polls voter drive that visited more than 80 gay pride events. He also noted that students from 65 colleges across the country joined forces with the DNC in October as part of the National Coming Out Day Project, a gay-youth voter drive. "This has been the biggest outreach ever to gay voters," Richardson said. "It's been amazing to watch."