Margaret Cho, the fierce comic known for her controversial sexual and political comments, was “uninvited” to perform at Unity ’04 the leading GLBT event at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, on July 26. Organizers said her performance would detract from the message of the event and the convention.

The Kerry campaign has given guidance that it wants to see a pro-Kerry message from the convention and has asked participants to tone down their anti-Bush rhetoric. Unity ’04 is not an official part of the convention but many of the organizations participating in it work closely with the campaign.

The party conventions have become increasingly stage-managed and lacking in drama, so even the smallest disagreement comes under the microscope of the voracious media, despite the fact that network coverage is declining.

The purpose of Unity ’04 is “to show a united GLBT community behind the Kerry-Edwards ticket, behind this convention,” said Human Rights Campaign (HRC) spokesman Mark Shields. Ten organizations came together for the event. Cho was asked to give a 10-20 minute performance as part of the event and agreed.

When they spoke with Cho’s manager Karen Taussig on July 19 to finalize plans, she said the performance would be a preview of material from Cho’s forthcoming “State of Emergency” tour, an hour to an hour and a half long, and “brutal,” said Shields.

The organizers became concerned that “she would overshadow these groups. And we don’t want to censor her,” Shields said. “We’d rather have eyes focused on our presence at this convention rather than on what Margaret Cho said last night.”

Both Shields and the Cho camp claim that the decision was amicable.

And then the news hit the Internet and members of the community began emailing their community organizations.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, said they were “dismayed” by the decision to uninvite Cho. “Under these circumstances, we must regretfully withdraw our support from this event.”

“It wasn’t our decision,” National Stonewall Democrats spokesman John Marble told 365Gay.com. He praised Cho for the voter registration work she is doing with them.

HRC’s Shields says they did not act unilaterally but rather consulted “with Stonewall Democrats, NGLTF, in spite of Matt Forman’s claims to the contrary, GLAAD, Victory Fund… I thought that they were going to check with all of them before they made the call back to Margaret.”

The decision prompted a lively series of postings online, particularly at the progressive political site the DailyKos.com.

“I’m appalled and disgusted by the spinelessness of removing Margaret Cho from the Unity 2004 event,” said Tom Smith from Ann Arbor, Mich. He had written to HRC unsubscribing from their mailing list saying, “You aren’t getting any money from me until I see a little courage.”

Cdalygo wrote, “We shun her because she openly criticizes the man who would write us our of the Constitution? Shame on you. If the Democrats forced you to make the decision, then shame on them as well.”

The gay group DontAmend.com, established to fight the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), plans to picket outside of the Unity ’04 in protest of John Kerry’s support for an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution that would bar the same-sex marriage that have been taking place since May.

“Rather than forthrightly saying that the civil rights of millions of Americans should be defended, most Democratic politicians have treated our equal marriage rights as at best, an unfortunate ‘diversion’ to their election campaigns,” said DontAmend.com coordinator Andy Thayer.

“These attitudes are an insult to the humanity of every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered person in the country,” he said. “Unfortunately the leading political organizations in our community have chosen to politely downplay the Democrats’ attacks on our equal marriage rights, all the while using the marriage issue in fundraising letters to swell their treasuries.”

In other convention news, Rep Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), the only openly lesbian in Congress, was named as one of the many vice chairs of the convention and addressed it on opening day, July 26. It is the first time that an openly gay or lesbian person has carried that title, though openly gay people have addressed both party conventions in the past, going back as far as 1980.

Five transgendered persons are serving as delegates to the convention. But they are not pleased with the decision to exclude their issues from the party platform.

Gays and lesbians shared their disappointment, as there was no support for same-sex marriage in that document either. An Associated Press poll of delegates to the convention found that 41 percent favor same-sex marriage, 21 percent oppose it, and the balance either did not indicate or thought the options did not reflect their view on the subject.

AIDS almost missed getting a spot on the dais at the convention. Only last minute lobbying brought the addition of Denise Stokes to the roster. She is an African American from Atlanta who is living with AIDS. “We were making plane reservations for her literally on Friday,” said Paul Feldman, spokesman for the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA).