Gay DNC report: The "Best Little Boy" speaks up and a gay shout-out from Ted Kennedy

Gay DNC Treasurer Andrew Tobias

Who's been following the Democratic National Convention this year? I usually find myself passively keeping up with the presidential conventions, but this year I find myself watching things a little more closely. Maybe that's because "hope" has actually translated into inclusiveness this year, including gay inclusiveness. Last night had two big, prime-time moments — speeches by Sen. Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama — but before that gay DNC treasurer Andrew Tobias spoke on the Republicans' terrible economic record.

Tobias has always had a place in my heart as the formerly-anonymous author of The Best Little Boy in the World, which played an important role in my road to self-acceptance. And he didn't avoid the topic of his sexuality last night:

"As an investor, I yearn for a president who looks to financial heroes, not corporate lobbyists, for economic advice. As a gay man, I yearn for a president who believes in equal rights for all Americans. But most of all, as an American, I yearn for a president that the world can root for and be inspired by. Because having much of the world on our side again would not only be good for our national security, it would be good for business."

Tobias also talked with Towleroad, offering a statement on why he feels strongly about supporting the Democratic party:

"For our country to have come so far since 1960 is amazing (at least to me). And a lot of the progress comes thanks to Democrats, who've overwhelmingly been leaning forward with us, against opposition at every step from an overwhelming majority of backward-leaning Republicans."

Ted Kennedy also included gays when he spoke to the audience with hopes that an Obama presidency would ease current divisiveness:

"For me this is a season of hope — new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few — new hope... We can meet these challenges with Barack Obama. Yes we can and yes we will. Barack Obama will close the book on the old politics of race and gender and group against group and straight against gay."

After the break, check out Kennedy's full speech, and more.

Meanwhile, openly gay MSNBC analyst Rachel Maddow had an interesting reaction to Michelle Obama's speech. Seeing the Obama family on the stage reminded her of seeing the Clintons together at the 1992 DNC, a sight that stirred a part of her that was apolitical unti that moment. Reminding Pat Buchanan (who was sitting to her left, which seems rather ironic) that 1992 was the time when he was talking up his culture wars, "I felt like these people don’t hate me and would respect me if we met."

Here's Ms. Obama's speech:

While I didn't hear any specific gay shout-outs, the talk about how people who fought for their ideals and noting the anniversaries of women gaining the right to vote and Martin Luther King, Jr's "I have a dream" speech made general inclusiveness a theme to Obama's words. I totally see where Maddow was coming from.

Earlier in the day, Barack Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng also spoke about inclusiveness in a general sense:

"Many of the children I taught in public and charter schools in New York City and Hawai'i had never traveled outside of their neighborhoods for fear of feeling like outsiders. I wanted them to know they belonged to something greater, I wanted them to imagine wider, dream bigger and reach higher. I wanted them to realize they had more power than they knew."

Soetoro-Ng also manages to invoke that same feeling, that she'd respect me for who I am. Did anyone else agree with Maddow's take, that she felt that she had found a shelter from an anti-gay political tide?