I asked if I could publish it here on my blog as well.

Dear City Paper:

I once heard someone say, “If a politician supports LGBT rights, that’s a

politician I can trust.” I was, therefore, happy to see that you included

support of LGBT rights as one of the benchmarks you used to indicate candidate

stances in the articles and chart included in your election guide.

(05.05/05.12.10)  The chart on the Governor’s race, however, shows an

ommission. At the bottom of the chart you indicate candidate stances on social

issues and their level of support from gay-rights groups. Joe Hoeffel, who is

running for Governor, is shown to have received support from gay-rights groups,

which is true. He did.  Missing, however, is mention that Dan Onorato

also received support from gay-rights groups and progressives. Why

the omission?

A tie vote occurred during the recent Steel-City Stonewall Democrats (A

local LGBT political advocacy group) endorsement process. That endorsement is

member driven and the board decided not to break it, determining the tie

indicated a valuable opportunity for a conversation to continue on who could

most effectively move human rights forward. Dan Onorato should also have been

listed as having received support from a gay-rights group.  A tie vote,

while unusual, should not be broken by missing information in the media.

Nor does a tie vote nullify the value of the endorsement process.  I would

like to confirm that the gay-rights group Steel-City Stonewall

Democrats had an equal number of members who felt Dan Onorato has a track

record of support for LGBT rights and could most effectively move our

equality forward. Let’s let the conversation continue.

-Dana Elmendorf

President, Steel-City Stonewall Demcorats