The Price of Silence on LGBT Issues in This Election

From the Huffington Post:

...The only reason these issues weren't discussed in the debates is because the moderators -- members of the media -- didn't ask about them. And far from a "great thing," right now that helps Mitt Romney, who is racing to the center and would rather not talk about how he's in favor of an amendment making gays second class citizens in the Constitution and how he signed a pledge from the National Organization for Marriage vowing to appoint federal judges who would rule against gay marriage.

Without having to discuss that as well as his opposition to anti-discrimination laws and his support for the Defense of Marriage Act (now on its last legs in the courts), while getting the late endorsement of the subservient and validation-starved Log Cabin Republicans yesterday, Romney presents himself as a moderate to women, suburban voters, independents and undecideds who might be uneasy voting for someone with harsh views on gay rights. For many, but particularly for those much-discussed low-information voters, seeing a gay group support Romney, while his hard-right positions on the issues haven't been elucidated in the general election, helps convince them his positions aren't as extreme as they've been made out to be.

When LGBT issues were a wedge used against the Democrats, moderators and media interviewers brought them up regularly during presidential elections, hurling them at Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry, forcing the Democratic candidate to either offend a part of his base or alienate other potential supporters, while the Republican candidate could use the issue to shore up his base. George W. Bush did just that, and he didn't worry about alienating independents because they either didn't care about the issue or were as opposed to marriage equality as everyone else.

But now that things are just about reversed, where the issue is a wedge for the Republican candidate -- and when the Democratic candidate actually touts his gay rights record in his stump speech on the campaign trail -- the media has decided it's a non-story? And that's a good thing?