By Karen Ocamb

No sooner had the Human Rights Campaign announced its Aug. 9 presidential forum than sparks began to fly around the blogosphere. But snickering nit-picking is expected to turn into cautious excitement as all but one Democratic candidate will appear in Hollywood to answer questions on LGBT issues.

After progressive (Pam Spaulding) and conservative (Andrew Sullivan, Chris Crain) bloggers fumed over the announcement that HRC and co-sponsor Logo selected HRC President Joe Solmonese and rock star Melissa Etheridge to serve as the sole panelists, HRC secured Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg News to moderate and Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for the panel.

The candidates will appear at the Production Group Studios at 1330 N. Vine St. for two hours in a serial format. The candidates were allowed to pick the order of their appearance based on when they confirmed their attendance.

The order is: Sen. Barack Obama, former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Christopher Dodd, Congressmember Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Mike Gravel, Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Sen. Joe Biden apparently has a scheduling conflict.

According to HRC, no Republicans have accepted invitations for a similar event.

The studio audience is expected to be campaign supporters and invited guests. However, HRC is securing a private venue for a free public viewing of the forum. HRC has set up a required RSVP list on its website, www.hrc.org, which can be accessed through the main story on the organization’s front page or by clicking on the event list for Los Angeles.

The initial announcement of the forum sparked a deluge of complaints and debates in the blogosphere. Crain pointed out (on Citizen Crane) that the event was not really “historic” as HRC claimed because it had held a presidential debate in 2003 with ABC News’ Sam Donaldson serving as moderator. 

But the biggest uproar occurred when bloggers learned that longshot Sen. Mike Gravel was not invited because, HRC said, he had not raised $100,000. Gravel was outraged.

“To say that I'm shocked is an understatement. I can confidently say, of all presidential candidates, I've been the most outspoken advocate for gay rights,” Gravel wrote on the Huffington Post.

LGBT bloggers including Queerty, Lane Hudson (at The Bilerico Project) and Spaulding (at Pam’s House Blend) led the successful charge for his inclusion, for which Gravel sent an open letter of thanks to Queerty.

The reversal prompted Page One’s Mike Rodgers to write on the Huffington Post that, “The progressive gay blogosphere has arrived and the rest of the political world is cordially invited to take notice.” Crain called the aftermath “Blog groveling for Gravel.”

Crain also got into a little blog-spat with Bloggernista, who called Crain and Sullivan (The Daily Dish) “eternally bitter homocons” in a cross-posted blog entitled “Fight the Right, Not Each Other.” Bloggernista complained about the two conservatives’ criticism of Solmonese and Etheridge as panelists.

The Clinton and Obama campaigns have set up fundraising viewing parties. See www.wilshireandwashington.com for more on parties and Ted Johnson’s breakdown of which entertainment industry honchos have given to which candidates.