Leading LGBT Newspapers Unite at Democratic National Convention for First-Ever Collaboration and Political News Coverage

DENVER, Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Gay History Project has announced that major coverage of the Democratic Convention will be supplied to the largest network of LGBT publications ever assembled. Find out more online at http://pgnblogs.wordpress.com/.

Editors note: All publications are welcome to use and re-publish the content of these interviews and news reports, provided accurate attribution is made to The Gay History Project. [See interview highlights below.]

Coverage begins with an interview with DNC Chair Howard Dean expressing the DNC's effort to be inclusive of the LGBT community at this year's historic Democratic Convention, which welcomes more than 339 openly LGBT delegates, including a transgender woman serving on the party's platform committee.

Major LGBT publications from across the U.S. will take part in a joint effort to bring coverage of the most inclusive Democratic Convention to their readers. The coverage will include exclusive interviews with Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean, openly LGBT U.S. Representatives Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Obama deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand, the DNC's Brian Bond, the highest-ranking openly gay member of the DNC and others. The coverage will accompany live blogging during caucus meetings and other events of interest.

Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News and the founder and coordinator of the Gay History Project, said, "Local gay newspapers are the most comprehensive record of LGBT history. No single individual, organization or traditional medium has the knowledge and experience that makes up our almost 40 years of coverage."

Among the publications taking part in the coverage team are Philadelphia Gay News, San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter, Dallas Voice, Houston Voice/Out Smart, Chicago's Windy City Times, Detroit Pride Source, L.A.'s Frontiers, Sacramento's Outword, Seattle Gay News, Echo Magazine of Phoenix, AZ, Pennsylvania's Central Voice, New Mexico Voice, Out In Jersey, Minneapolis' Lavender Magazine, San Diego's Gay and Lesbian Times, insideOut in Nashville, Kansas City's Camp, Indiana's Reality magazine, Nashville Out & About, Salt Lake City's Q, Cleveland's Gay People's Chronicle and many more.

The participating publications have a combined print circulation of over one half million readers (not including Web readership), making this the largest LGBT print media collaboration in the history of the gay press.

The project was the brainchild of Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal. Segal is a founder and former president of both the National Gay Newspaper Guild and Gay Press Association, as well as a past member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.

Interview Highlights

Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the former governor of Vermont and presidential candidate in 2004. He was the first governor in the nation to sign civil-union legislation into law. He sat with Mark Segal of the Gay History Project for a pre-convention preview:

Segal: If there is an Obama administration, what do you think should be the LGBT position? Should we go for the nondiscrimination bill [ENDA] first, should we go for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," or do you think we should go for all of it?

Dean: The first thing should be the nondiscrimination bill. Human rights is the basis of all of this, and the most discriminatory things that should be gotten rid of at once are the things that allow people to assume that gay people somehow don't have full and equal rights as everybody else. That's a given. The hate-crimes bill and things of that sort are first.

Honorable Tammy Baldwin, Member, U.S. Congress (Wisconsin), and first openly lesbian U.S. Representative, also member of this year's DNC Platform Committee:

Segal: You played a major role in shaping the very gay positive Democratic platform that Obama is campaigning on. Was there any resistance?

Baldwin: We made our decisions at the pressroom drafting committee by consensus, and it was remarkably smooth as a process. There was still agreement and pride over the fact that this was a historic document for Democrats with regard to LGBT equality.

Steve Hildebrand, Deputy Campaign Manager, Obama presidential campaign, and openly gay political strategist:

Segal: You should be happy with the recent Harris poll last week, which showed Obama having 68% of the LGBT vote and McCain only 10%.

Hildebrand: I'm not satisfied with that. I think we have a lot of work to do within the campaign to make sure we get that number up to 70 or 80 percent of LGBT people. We need to make sure that people know Senator Obama's record and his positions on issues that are important to the community.

For more interviews and hour-by-hour coverage this week, please go to http://pgnblogs.wordpress.com/