In politics, money talks. And money from gay and lesbian donors is talking louder than ever in this election cycle.
That's partly a result of President Obama endorsing same-sex marriage, and it's partly because Republicans are starting to see contributions as well.
That's a huge change from just a few decades ago.
When gays and lesbians started the Human Rights Campaign in the 1980s, they knew that the path to influence in Washington is paved with cash. Write a politician a check, and he's more likely to listen to you. The problem was that back then, most politicians didn't want anything to do with gay people or their money.
"It was almost an embarrassment to be supported by the gay community," says Winnie Stachelberg, who used to work for HRC and is now with the liberal Center for American Progress.
In 1988, the presidential campaign of Democrat Michael Dukakis rejected a $1 million donation from gay donors. By the time Stachelberg became HRC's political director in the mid-1990s, things had not progressed very far. She tried to hand out checks to political candidates, and some of them told her to wait.
"They would count on the $5,000 contribution, but they wanted to make sure that it was dated after the Tuesday where it would appear on a filing," she says. That was so voters would not know the candidates were accepting money from gay donors, and because "clearly attack ads would have been made," Stachelberg says.
Less than 20 years later, times have changed dramatically.
::: To read more visit our source NPR
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