The idea of change, especially equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, was one of the main issues discussed at the second annual LGBT political forum held at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a full 101 Osmond.
The forum, hosted by LGBT Students for Obama and the Penn State College Democrats, allowed for an informal discussion among Jamie Citron, LGBT vote deputy director for Obama for America, Steve Glassman, chairman of the PA Human Relations Commission and members of the community.
"The purpose of the event is to bring LGBT issues to the forefront," Dan Kolbe, president of LGBT Students for Obama, said. "I hope the LGBT and Penn State communities realize that equality for all is an important issue that our country must focus on."
Glassman said the current campaigns for both parties have been focused greatly on change, but change at the federal and state levels are entirely different for each candidate.
He said the change that the Obama-Biden ticket exemplifies is the kind of change that will, "bring America to the place where we want it to be," while the change addressed by the McCain-Palin camp will not.
Citron and Glassman encouraged attendees to examine the campaigns of each candidate in terms of civil and LGBT rights issues.
"If we are talking about LGBT issues, the outcome is already pretty clear we will either be looking forward to great strides being made in the first term ... or several steps backward," Citron said. "There is a big difference between an A or an A- and an F, which is what you are looking at when you compare the two camps' views on LGBT rights."
Citron mentioned that as of Tuesday night, there were only 28 days left until the election.
He explained how members of the Penn State and surrounding communities could get involved with the Obama campaign.
Citron also explained the importance of being involved with the campaign in the final five days leading up to the election.
"The last five days are referred to as GOTV, or get out the vote, and we want to make it GOTLGBTV, or get out the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender vote," he said. "There are no excuses not to vote."
Glassman said that this is the only presidential election that he has witnessed in which the nation has the opportunity to be legitimately excited by one of its potential candidates.
"Change in this country needs to come from within," Glassman said. "This is the first election where you can truly be ecstatic ... Obama has the ability to bring drive and inspiration and potentially change the face of the nation."
