As you saw on the cover of PGN this week, and most likely were surprised by, we are running an op-ed from the Democratic candidate for president of the United States.
PGN has always sought participation from the presidential candidates in our election coverage. We ask both the Republican and Democratic candidates to participate (usually it’s only the Democrat who takes up the mantel). We’ve been doing this going back to 1976 with the Jimmy Carter campaign. That year we received a signed letter from Carter about his LGBT positions. Four years later, when he was challenged for the nomination by Sen. Ted Kennedy, Kennedy sat for a Q & A with this paper.
A lot of back and forth happens before something of this importance finds its way onto the front page. The first step is that we make the ask of the candidate and his or her staff. Then, we figure out what format the piece is going to take. Usually it’s an interview or we’ll submit written questions. Those were options this year as well.
It should be noted that PGN has a history of communicating with both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, so navigating the perils of a campaign were understood by both sides. At the same time the campaign was deciding what form this piece would take, we at PGN were being asked to join various coalitions, all of which we felt we could not do while this process was in formation. It made for a stressful time. Why?
At that same time, we were also in contact with senior campaign representatives for Donald Trump. Again, these connections were made from people we came to know over the years. We offered space to allow Trump to express his views in these pages, but we made it clear that in the end, we most likely would be supporting Clinton. We just wanted to be fair and allow the Republican candidate to express views for our readers.
Here’s the point: Trump claims to be the candidate of change. Clinton moved the needle with this op-ed, while Trump did what almost every other Republican usually does: refused to speak directly to the LGBT community. Note the year when Democratic candidates for president began to speak to the LGBT community: It was 1976.
Republicans seem to be stuck in the 1970s, and that is not change. “Make America great again” by taking us back to the 1970s, a time in which we had no rights? That said, we and other LGBT publications will continue to ask to hear Trump’s views. That is our job.