Gay supporters of Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination began voter outreach in the Castro last weekend in an effort to drum up support in advance of the state's February 5 primary.

Obama, who trails Senator Hillary Clinton in several recent statewide polls, nonetheless has been closing the gap, and is in a tight race with Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, where voters soon will cast ballots in the caucuses and primary, respectively.

Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who represents the Castro, is one of Obama's gay supporters. Another is Rebecca Prozan, co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club. She organized a private meeting with undecided voters last week.

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter Monday, December 17, Tobias Wolff, a gay man who's chair of the national LGBT policy committee for the Obama campaign, called the Illinois senator a "fighter" who will stand by his principles.

"People like Senator Obama and they like his record," Wolff said in response to a question about Obama's electability. Wolff pointed out that recent polls show Obama doing better than Clinton in hypothetical match-ups with Republican candidates. National polling, however, does not mean much at this stage of the race.

Wolff, 37, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, also noted that while he disagrees with Obama on the issue of same-sex marriage, he nonetheless believes that Obama is the better candidate. Obama, as well as the other leading Democratic candidates, support civil unions. Wolff supports marriage equality. But Wolff drew a distinction with Obama's and Clinton's position on the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Obama supports repeal of all DOMA, while Clinton is on record supporting repeal of only part of the legislation. President Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law, as well as the anti-gay "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy that prohibits gays and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces.

At the Logo presidential forum in August, Clinton said that she would repeal Section 3 of DOMA, which states that, for federal purposes, "marriage" can mean only marriage between a man and a woman, thus it essentially denies same-sex couples more than 1,100 federal benefits enjoyed by married heterosexual couples. Section 2, however, says that states do not have to recognize same-sex relationships, and Clinton has not gone so far as to support repeal of that provision.

What that part of DOMA means, Wolff said, is that gay couples could have problems should they move to a state that doesn't recognize their relationship. That section of DOMA could also come into play regarding custody or wrongful death issues.

"States can disregard judgments," Wolff said, referring to the problems that could arise. "Senator Obama from the start said this is wrong and we shouldn't be making excuses."

On the issue of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Wolff said that Obama is on record in support of a fully inclusive ENDA that includes protections for gender identity. Wolff said that Obama was a chief co-sponsor of Illinois' Human Rights Amendment, which is fully inclusive.

Wolff also discussed the fallout from Obama's decision to include the anti-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin on the program for a series of concerts in South Carolina this fall. Obama came under heavy criticism from many in the LGBT community because McClurkin has proclaimed himself "cured" of homosexuality and now rails against it. In an essay that Obama wrote for members of the National Gay Newspaper Guild, he discussed the McClurkin episode and reiterated his support of the LGBT community.

"It was a mistake," Wolff said of the McClurkin episode, but he added that Obama has taken responsibility for it and has worked in coalition "long before McClurkin" with the goal of bringing about "real, progressive change."

"A lot of people run away ... Senator Obama issued a series of statements on how he intends to take those positions to people," Wolff said. "That, to me, is real proof that he is an effective champion for us. Both the senator himself and everyone in the campaign found out four or five days before the concert."