Harold Ford Jr. will address gay
political group Stonewall Democrats in New York City Wednesday, the
New
York Daily News first reported.
The former Tennessee representative,
who now lives in New York, is contemplating a challenge to New York
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for her Senate seat. HRC, the largest gay
rights advocate, recently endorsed Senator Gillibrand's 2010
reelection bid.
Ford, who twice voted for the Federal
Marriage Amendment, a bill that sought to define marriage as a
heterosexual union in the U.S. Constitution, recently announced he
now favors granting gay couples the right to marry. The
thirty-nine-year-old politician's change of heart has been widely
criticized by gay activists.
“I know a snake oil salesman when I
see one,” Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van
Capelle said.
Speaking on the appearance, Democratic
political organizer Marty Algaze told the paper that Ford was
“walking into a lion's den.”
“A lot of people don't like him, and
I have a feeling they're going to be a little hostile,” he added.
Seventy people have already accepted a
Facebook invitation from New York-based gay rights group The Power to
protest Ford's appearance. “Stop this anti-gay candidate from
running for Senate in New York,” the group Crash
Harold Ford, Jr.'s Address to Stonewall Democrats NYC says.
Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer
is also rumored to be considering throwing his hat into the Senate
contest.