Two U.S. Senate candidates spoke at the Pride Conference this weekend, and Mel Green reviewed them on her blog Henkimaa:

Yesterday I attended the Alaska Pride Conference, an annual event sponsored by Identity, Inc. My main reason for attending this year came out of my involvement with the Alaska LGBT Community Survey; but I also got the opportunity to hear firsthand from two of the candidates for U.S. Senate, Frederick David Haase of the Alaska Libertarian Party and Scott McAdams of the Alaska Democratic Party. Conference organizers invited all U.S. Senate candidates, but neither Republican Party of Alaska candidates — official candidate Joe Miller and incumbent and write-in candidate Sen. Lisa Murkowski — accepted the invitation.

Which fit in pretty well with what has become obvious: Republican officials and candidates care little about the the issues of concern to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens. Whereas Democrats, despite sometimes spotty records, do. Thus, this year’s Pride march in Anchorage saw the enthusiastic participation of two Democratic gubernatorial candidates (Hollis French and eventual primary winner Ethan Berkowitz) and Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Diane Benson… but nary a Republican candidate was to be seen. (No Libertarians that I can recall, either.)

Mel gave credit to Frederick Haase, the Libertarian candidate, for accepting the invitation to Pride Conference. However, she was not impressed with his argument against hate crimes laws that protect our community and his reference to our “lifestyles.” Her opinion of Haase was shared by others who heard the speech and posted unfavorable comments on their Facebook pages.

When Scott McAdams stepped up to the podium, he began with the message “Vote your values, not your fears,” and gave a brief math and history lesson explaining why Lisa has very little chance of winning (similar to the Tom Begich presentation on Moore Up North.) Then McAdams turned to LGBT issues, Mel reports:

But if in fact he does win, what does Scott McAdams have to offer LGBTA voters? He told us that if he is elected, he will sign on as cosponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and as a cosponsor of a bill to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). He also registered his unequivocal support for other federal legislation which advance equality under the law for LGBT citizens, such as repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA; extended to cover same-sex couples by Pres. Obama).

During the Q&A period, Mel was also impressed by his stands on other issues, like early childhood education and drug treatment for drug/alcohol-involved crimes. She concludes:

What sealed it for me was when McAdams said “Sovereignty begins with the individual. Freedom begins with the individual.” Most LGBT people spend a good part of their lives fending off the violative behavior of those who insist that we are supposed to be something other than who and what we are: attacking our sovereignty and freedom at our very cores. When McAdams said that, I knew that he & I see eye-to-eye: & that he respects, in a way I’ve seldom seen expressed by any non-LGBT political candidate, the integrity of who we are as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

Aside from that, he was also very personable, and has a great sense of humor. I really really really like this guy.

Learn more about him at his website, and also see the other three segments of the October 9 “Moore Up North” featuring an in-depth interview with him: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4. (Part 1 was the portion with Tom Begich already [linked] above.)

I urge all LGBT people, and all our allies who care about LGBT equality, to vote Scott McAdams for the U.S. Senate. For us, and for Alaska.

Thanks to Mel for reviewing the U.S. Senate candidates at the Pride Conference. I encourage everyone to read her full post HERE.

Photo by Mel Green: Scott McAdams, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, at the Alaska Pride Conference 2010.