Chrissy Gephardt Stumps for Father's Economic Plan

The daughter of Democratic Presidential candidate Dick Gephardt stumped for her father at the Institute of Politics (IOP) yesterday, discussing her dad’s plans to revitalize the economy and how her own homosexuality has shaped the candidate’s views on gay rights.

Chrissy Gephardt, the eldest daughter of the Missouri representative, came out to her family and husband in spring 2001 and is now campaigning full-time for her father.

In a speech co-sponsored by the Harvard College Democrats and the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters’ Alliance (BGLTSA) Gephardt focused mainly on her father’s plan to rejuvenate the economy, which she said has been destroyed by President Bush. She said her father will work towards bringing back the bull market of the Clinton era.

“People are losing their jobs left and right. If there are people sitting at home and listening to Bush talk about job increases and they are unemployed...You can only dupe the American people so many times,” said Gephardt, a Washington, D.C., social worker.

But while as a candidate, her father’s focus is on jobs and the economy, the issue of gay rights is one that touches a personal cord within the Gephardt family, she said.

“He sees how it impacts me. He sees how I don’t have the same rights as my brother and sister. He sees that if my partner goes to the hospital, I can’t visit her,” she said.

Gephardt said her dad supports civil unions, gay adoptions and a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy employed by the military.

These issues, Gephardt said, are part of a larger picture: one of equal rights and civil rights for all citizens.

“If my dad wasn’t a champion of civil rights, I couldn’t be out here doing this,” she said.

But while Gephardt said she and her father are both champions of social justice, she said they do disagree on specificities. While she supports gay marriage, he supports civil unions—which accords couples fewer legal rights.

“If you are talking equal rights, you need equal rights across the board,” she said.

But in an effort to explain this disparity, she said her father is not against gay marriage, but has chosen to support civil unions as a more “realistic stance.”

“My dad is very practical,” Gephardt said. “He has told me, ‘I want to do something that we can actually push through and get accomplished. Civil unions are feasible. We did civil unions in Vermont, but can you imagine getting it done in Missouri?’”

Some students attending the event said they were satisfied with Gephardt’s effort to explain the difference in their beliefs.

“She resolved it very well in showing that she really believes that gay marriage is the right thing to do but at the same time her father brings the pragmatism of an experienced politician. It seems they had struck a balance which I was heartened by,” said Joseph M. Hanzich ’06, speakers director of the Harvard College Democrats.

However, Ryan P. McAuliffe ’06, a member of the Harvard College Democrats and the BGLTSA who did not attend the event, said he was unsatisfied with her explanation.

“I do find some level of hypocrisy in the stance that Dick Gephardt has taken. However, I do leave him room to grow as a policy maker in the United States. He does have a long history of not actually being a strong supporter of gay rights,” he said. “But, I do applaud his support of civil union—it shows he has progressed in his political career.”

McAuliffe said he thought that Gephardt’s sexuality would help her father’s campaign, pointing out that over the summer the two were featured in the June issue of the Advocate, a gay news magazine.

But Gephardt said her father has been a strong supporter of gay rights for the last 10 years and has fought for civil rights of all minorities. She recalled his fight to pass hate-crimes legislation and his support of funding for the treatment and prevention of AIDS.

In addition to gay rights, Gephardt tried to touch on all relevant voter issues in her talk, asserting that she offers more to her dad’s campaign than expertise on a single issue.

“It is insulting to talk to groups about just gay and lesbian issues because they want health care too. They are voters too,” she said.

Gephardt on Gephardt

With a herd of nine Democrats vying to square off against President Bush next November, Gephardt described her father as an electable candidate, attributing his appeal in part to his Missouri roots.

“If we are going to have a candidate that beats the president, we need a candidate that can win the more conservative states,” she said. “My dad is the only top candidate from the Midwest. He is a person they can identify with.”

She said her father would make repealing the Bush tax cut a priority.

“We have had the worst economy in terms of the unemployment rate since Hoover, thanks to the president,” she said.

She also explained her father’s desire to provide health care to every person in this country, calling it “the biggest plan and the boldest plan of all the candidates.”

In terms of his plan for education, Gephardt spoke of her father’s commitment to training good teachers and rewarding students for entering the field of education.

Gephardt explained, “My sister is a teacher and made $17,000 in her first year. Yet, she had the same loans as someone who was graduating with an MBA.”

The atmosphere at the event was intimate, with a low turn-out of only five students.

IOP member James L. Granger ’05 attributed the poor attendance to the event’s afternoon scheduling, a period when most students are in class.

He also said he would have liked to have heard Gephardt discuss more of a diversity of issues.

“I liked her talk of the social policies which has been crowded out by the foreign policy and Iraq issues. But I would have liked to hear her talk about that too because it is a difficult issue without a clear answer, and I don’t think many of the candidates have proposed a concrete plan of what they are going to do,” he said.

—Staff writer Faryl W. Ury can be reached at ury@fas.harvard.edu.