Melissa Etheridge looks back at LGBT forum...
The latest issue of In Magazine Los Angeles has a special report written by the hard-working Karen Ocamb who spoke with Melissa Etheridge about the historic LGBT presidential forum that she participated in earlier this month.
Etheridge, whose new album "Awakening" is out Sept. 25, tells Ocamb that she has not yet chosen a candidate to support but she says she had "an epiphany" when listening to Rep. Dennis Kucinich who is far more supportive of equal rights for gays than any of the leading candidates. She also seemed mighty disappointed with Hillary Clinton.
"...I belonged to the class of folks who were like, 'Oh yeah, Dennis Kucinich and [former Rep. Mike] Gravel - they're saying all the right things, but they can't be elected...I'm sitting on the talk show couch listening to [Kucinich] and I'm going 'Holy crap! This man speaks exactly what I feel is possible in the future. He is speaking exactly the world I wish to live in, the world I wish to create, the world I wake up every day and go my world can be tis way, help me see that the world can be this way and work toward it. I promise you - I was not a Dennis Kucinich fan before I got up there on that couch."
On Gov. Bill Richardson's meltdown moment when he said he believes homosexuality is a choice (he has since tried to backtrack): "I just thought the answer would be, 'Whatever it is, this is America. We all deserve the same rights.' I thought he didn't hear my question...I've been interested in the dialogue that exchange brought up."
Etheridge told Sen. Hillary Clinton that gays felt "thrown under the bus" during her husband's adnministration: "I think it surprised her because there was a defensiveness..." Etheridge it bothered her personally when Clinton said because Etheridge had cancer, she wants things to happen faster.
"Just this morning, that poppsed through my head and I went, 'What?' What if Lyndon B. Johnson had said that to Martin Luther King" 'Sorry that you're black, but you have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up.' No, that's not leadership. That bothered me. That bothered me personally, somebody saying that to me. So again, I had my own, 'Wait a minute.' I was kind of a Clinton gal...so I'm having my own little thing there."
About Out
in Hollywood
Greg Hernandez, Page 2 "News Lite" columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News, gives you a fly-on-the-wall account of the Oscars and other awards show, movie premieres, film festivals and various star-studded events. He also shares his celebrity interviews as well as specially-selected videos and photos. He writes about all things pop culture through a gay man's eyes ...
E-mail Greg
Leave a comment