By Karen Ocamb
June 3, 2015 :: 12:23 PM
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be holding a “Conversation with Hillary” fundraiser at the home of Michael Lombardo, President of Programming at HBO, and his husband Sonny Ward on Friday, June 19. Space is limited for the 5 p.m. gathering at a cost of $2,700 per person. Co-hosts must chip in $27,000 for Hillary for America.
The timing is interesting—it’s Pride month and while new Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley—an LGBT ally and the former governor of Maryland—mentioned the LGBT community at the top of his announcement speech and democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, another presidential contender, has won the hearts of some Elizabeth Warren-loving LGBT voters—neither knew to issue a Happy Pride statement or Tweet about the upcoming hoped-for marriage equality victory at the Supreme Court, as did Hillary Clinton.
But then, Clinton’s had a very long engagement with the LGBT community, as First Lady of Arkansas and as a frontline campaigner for her husband Bill Clinton’s run for the presidency.
In 1991, Hillary Clinton came to AIDS Project Los Angeles, escorted by David Mixner, to meet with people with AIDS directly (above) and to talk about a “Manhattan Project” for AIDS. Clinton told APLA Board Chair David Wexler and the gathering of staff and clients that while she understood the sentiment and urgency that a “Manhattan Project” implied, she preferred a different term that didn’t have to do with mass destruction.
After Bill Clinton was elected, the Office of AIDS Research was set up in NIH to do something similar and ANGLE’s Dr. Scott Hitt was appointed chair of the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.
There have been major disappointments with Bill Clinton along the way, to put it diplomatically, but there is no other candidate seeking the presidency who comes remotely close to having the experience Hillary Clinton has had with the LGBT community and the ongoing discrimination.
Clinton could probably use a favorable boost a fundraiser with LGBT well-wishers might bring. A new CNN/ORC poll shows her favorability ratings have gone down. From CNN:
A growing number of people say she is not honest and trustworthy (57%, up from 49% in March), less than half feel she cares about people like them (47%, down from 53% last July) and more now feel she does not inspire confidence (50%, up from 42% last March).
That the event is being held shortly after former Bruce Jenner introduced the world to transgender Caitlyn Jenner might also have some reflective meaning. Honored by the Human Rights Campaign last March, Michael Lombardo also talked about his anguished journey to living an authentic life.
“I had this fantasy that I could find a different way. I didn’t know how and I didn’t know when – but the thought that I would need to live two separate lives, a personal one and a professional one, just felt like a death sentence to me,” he said. “Living my life honestly and openly — is really the highest achievement I can have hoped for.”
For Clinton to be personally reminded of this ongoing inner torture for many LGBT people—no matter what one’s income status—is critical to advancing the LGBT civil rights agenda and having a real champion for LGBT equality in the White House. And hopefully, she will talk with the LGBT press as well as LGBT donors with deep pockets.
To purchase tickets and RSVP for the “Conversation with Hillary” fundraiser go to here or contact John Gile at [email protected].
Here’s the Frontiers/LGBT Hollywood interview with Michael Lombardo, to give you a sense of the event’s host: