Lots of famous people, not a lot happening

Well it's been a busy and exhausting day at the Dem Convention, though it's hard to say that anything of substance has actually happened - then again, substance isn't really the point of the convention. Lots of famous Dems walking the hallway - got to see Howard Dean, Paul Begala, and former SF Mayor Willie Brown. I personally got to interview Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and also spoke with Steve Elmendorf, the deputy director of the Kerry campaign. Others I spoke to included C. Dixon Osborne, head of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, and Eric Stern, the head of GLBT outreach at the Democratic National Committee.

I think the most interesting comment I had today came from Elmendorf. Steve admitted that Kerry is at 95% in terms of his support for the gay community, he's not at 100% yet and they fully admit that. But Elmendorf, like most of the pro-Kerry folks you speak to at the convention, point out that Kerry is still the most pro-gay candidate to ever get the Dem or Republican nomination. And, Kerry is in favor of civil unions - Clinton never voiced such support. So, they argue, and I don't disagree, that while Kerry might tick us off about gay marriage, he's still better than Clinton, and in general, we loved Clinton.

Other than that, this place is enormous, the events are spread ALL over the place. Security is TIGHT, which is reassuring but also a bit disconcerting. The police are EVERYWHERE, along with MPs and helicopters and fighter jets, and I'm told anti-aircraft batteries. The subway, or the T as they call it here, had LOTS of cops carrying guns I'd never even seen before. Not just machine gun type thing, but some kind of sawed off shotgun looking thing. These boys are prepared. And that's great. But it's still a bit disconcerting.

Anyway, I'm off to two events the Human Rights Campaign is sponsoring this evening, along with a bunch of other groups. That includes the GLBT Unity Event that Margaret Cho got booted from. Should be interesting to see how that goes, with the planned protests and all.

More later, JOHN