Many gay and lbian service members scribed livg and servg limbo, knowg there was no longer a ban on them per se, but that their reers would still be at risk if they were found out. That began to change on Dec. 22, 2010.
Contents:
- PROCLAMATN 7203—GAY AND LBIAN PRI MONTH, 1999
- LBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS DURG PRINT CLTON'S SEND TERM: A WORKG PAPER PUBLISHED BY THE CIZENS' COMMISSN ON CIVIL RIGHTS
- PROCLAMATN 7316—GAY AND LBIAN PRI MONTH, 2000
- TIMELE: BILL CLTON’S EVOLUTN ON GAY RIGHTS
- CLTON’S LEGACY ON GAY RIGHTS
PROCLAMATN 7203—GAY AND LBIAN PRI MONTH, 1999
The print who signed the Defense of Marriage Act to law 1996 is now urgg the Supreme Court to strike down. Here’s a look back on Clton’s evolutn on gay rights. As you n see,Clton has long tried to have both ways--urtg the gay muny while also erng as a centrist. * bill clinton gay *
“Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton, " by Jam Kirchick, is a 654-page tome that took years of rearch and an exhstive vtigatn to printial archiv, historil terviews and once-classified ernment rerds.
LBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS DURG PRINT CLTON'S SEND TERM: A WORKG PAPER PUBLISHED BY THE CIZENS' COMMISSN ON CIVIL RIGHTS
Whout Hillary Clton’s efforts, the global stggle for equaly for gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people would not have proceed as fast as has the past several years, nor would the Uned Stat be seen today as a global lear that stggle. * bill clinton gay *
“I realized that all the stori I was readg, and the personali and phenomena, whether was McCarthyism or the Reagans, FDR or JFK, that there were the gay stori lurkg the background, ” Kirchick stori lurked the background out of necsy: The st of g out as gay — or, more likely, beg outed agast one’s will — was enormo profsnally and socially.
“It was the specter of homosexualy that provoked the first and only suici by a member of Congrs his Capol Hill office, ed Lyndon Johnson to et that his historil lead would evaporate, and seized the paranoid md of Richard Nixon send only to the plots of his ever-expandg enemi list, ” Kirchick wr.
PROCLAMATN 7316—GAY AND LBIAN PRI MONTH, 2000
“To asss the full sle of the damage that the fear of homosexualy wrought on the Amerin polil landspe, one mt take to acunt not only the reers ed and the liv cut short, but somethg vaster and unquantifiable: the possibili thwarted, ” Kirchick wr.
Although openly LGBTQ people have ma their way to the hight ranks of ernment today, was not long ago that spected homosexuals workg for the feral ernment were hunted down, publicly huiated and termated wh the full force of the ernment. Unr the new policy, gay, lbian and bisexual Amerins uld serve their untry, as long as they kept their sexual inty unr supporters of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” weled as a more liberal policy that would allow gay Amerins to serve their untry, gay rights activists plaed that forced the service members to secrecy, while dog ltle to bat the prejudice agast them.
TIMELE: BILL CLTON’S EVOLUTN ON GAY RIGHTS
Dpe this policy, hundreds of thoands of gays and lbians served the ary throughout the next several s, keepg silent about their sexual inty for fear of beg discharged, losg their veterans’ benefs or worse. In 1981, the Department of Defense reaffirmed the ban, and durg the 1980s the ary branch discharged close to 17, 000 men and women unr the homosexual his 1992 printial mpaign, Bill Clton announced his tentn to end the ban on homosexuals the ary if elected.
In practice, the policy did ltle to change the behavr of mandg officers toward service members they spected of beg gay, and by 2009, the ary had discharged more than 13, 000 gays, lbians and bisexuals sce DADT was troduced, acrdg to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. In 2010, jt after Senate Republins blocked a repeal effort, Clton himself voiced regret over the policy, and said he had only settled on after beme clear both the Senate and the Hoe would favor an absolute ban on gays the Samad/AFP/Getty ImagPrint Barack Obama signg the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 to law at the Department of the Interr Washgton, DC, on December 22, Repeal of 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell'Barack Obama mpaigned for print 2008 wh a promise to immediately overturn DADT, but the discharg ntued durg his first year the Whe Hoe.
CLTON’S LEGACY ON GAY RIGHTS
In 2015, the Pentagon add sexual orientatn to the Milary Equal Opportuny policy for the first time, meang gay servicemen and servicewomen would be protected om June 2016 the ary end s ban on transgenr service members, a group that acrdg to some timat may have numbered some 15, 500 at that time. The prev year, Clton had formalized the Whe Hoe’s outreach to gays and lbians by namg Stt, a heterosexual Arkansas iend who had cultivated Wt Coast gay lears while nng Clton’s printial mpaign California, as the first-ever Whe Hoe official wh a full-time role tendg to LGBT ncerns.
“Our support for the bill would be taken by many the gay muni as an exprsn by the Print of ep ced [sic] bias agast gay people, ” Stt and her puty, Richard Soris told printial adviser Harold Ick a May 10 memo, “and as vg to Republin spegoatg of gays. ” “I believe we have been extremely succsful rebuildg our relatnships to [sic] our iends the gay muni spe the fias of gays the ary, the disjoted handlg of the Colorado se and the Print’s stated personal opposn to gay marriage, ” Stt and Soris wrote.