In one of the most-watched congressional primaries in the country, the Human Rights Campaign is standing behind its endorsed candidate, embattled U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.).

McKinney, who has represented the 4th Congressional District for 12 of the past 14 years, failed to win a majority of the vote in the July 18 Democratic primary, capturing 47.1 percent. In the Aug. 8 runoff, she faces former DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson, who finished with 44.4 percent of the initial vote.

The incumbent has been engulfed in a media firestorm since March, when she allegedly struck a Capitol Hill police officer after he stopped her at a security checkpoint. But the highly charged reaction to that incident is of no concern to HRC, which is interested solely in McKinney’s positions on gay rights issues, said HRC Political Director Samantha Smoot.

“Her record is very solid, which is why she earned our endorsement in the first place, and why she’s going to keep it,” Smoot said.

Johnson, McKinney’s runoff opponent, said that HRC endorsed the incumbent before inquiring about his views on gay rights, but added that he remains hopeful he can attract gay and lesbian voters.

“We have many people who support the campaign of all colors, shapes, sizes and sexual orientations,” Johnson said.

In nine DeKalb County precincts identified by Georgia Equality as having a high concentration of gay and lesbian voters, Johnson outpaced McKinney 65.9 to 19.5 percent, according to an analysis by Southern Voice.

On the issues

McKinney, whose campaign did not respond to repeated interview requests by press time, has long received a perfect score on HRC’s congressional report card. But Johnson also expressed strong support for gay rights causes in an interview with Southern Voice July 25.

“I think gay and lesbian couples should be able to formalize and legalize their relationships so they can receive the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual couples,” Johnson said. However with the term “marriage” carrying religious connotations, Johnson said reaching parity between gay and heterosexual couples might be achieved easiest through civil unions.

“I don’t think that issue should get caught up in semantics,” Johnson said.

The congressional hopeful also strongly supports enactment of the long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would add sexual orientation to the list of categories protected from workplace discrimination, and of allowing gay parents to adopt.

He was also highly critical of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prohibits openly gay and lesbian soldiers from serving.

“It’s an obsolete doctrine that needs to yield to full and open inclusion of gay and lesbian men and women into the armed forces,” Johnson said.

During a March meeting with McKinney’s father, Billy McKinney, gay and lesbian constituents criticized the Congress member for her silence on gay issues since returning to Congress in 2005.

Billy McKinney suggested gay groups should endorse his daughter before she would take those stands. McKinney was not yet a co-sponsor of the bill repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” at the time she was endorsed by HRC, but currently supports six of the organization’s 10 positions on legislation pending in Congress.

In addition to the proposal to rescind “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” McKinney is also a co-sponsor of a bill that would create a path to citizenship for foreign gay men and lesbians in a domestic partnership with an American citizen. However, she has yet to add her support to bills offering domestic partner benefits to federal employees, or a measure to add sexual orientation to the federal hate crimes law.

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