Political Volunteering?

[FreshmanApplicant]

So, I'm applying as a Freshman this year, so my volunteering is a bit sparse since I'd rather only list things I've been continuing for a long time or recently started instead of listing standard high school stuff. One of those has been volunteering as a phone bank caller for Hillary Clinton a few hours a week. Is this too political to include? On a similar note, part of why I'm going into my field of study (epidemiology and high-risk populations) is related to my sexuality as a gay man. Should I include these in application, or is it too risky/pandering?

[Guest020202]

This is the most helpful thing I've read on this forum for preparing for the application:

Know your audience. Broadly, you are writing to the Department of Defense, more specifically, you are writing to your future mentor at one of your preferred facilities. Either way, your essay should be related to your major and what your are interested in working on. If you are an Aero/Mech who listed Edwards AFB and Eglin AFB as your first choices, you better say something about flight testing. Possibly what you have worked on in the past, or what you might be interested in doing.
"We [the DoD] are not nice people, we kill people for a living." This was said at orientation, and I won't say by whom, and I'm taking it horribly out of context, but you get the idea. Generally speaking, the DoD is not interested in the environment or protecting the desert tortoise. You are not applying to Greenpeace. Unless environmental conservation is relevant to a program that you are interested in, don't mention it.
Talk about how you want to work for your facility even after your service commitment is completed.
If you do not have any research experience, that's okay. This is pegged as a research scholarship, but not every facility is looking to fill research positions. If you do not have research experience just talk about what experience you do have. Or even what experience you will have by the time you graduate.
Say you want to give back to the country and protect it from bad guys. I would suggest putting a few more adjectives and a synonym or two in there.
Have someone else spell and grammar check it...unlike what I have done for this forum.