Hillary Clton had the chance to make gay rights history. She refed. - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• HILLARY CLTON'S GAY-MARRIAGE PROBLEM
• HILLARY CLTON CLAR 'GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS'
• HILLARY CLTON HAD THE CHANCE TO MAKE GAY RIGHTS HISTORY. SHE REFED.
• REMEMBER WHEN HILLARY CLTON WAS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE?
• HILLARY CLTON’S GAY RIGHTS EVOLUTN
• HILLARY CLTON'S VIEWS EVOLVE ON GAY MARRIAGE, JT TIME FOR PRINTIAL MPAIGN
• HILLARY CLTON PRAIS GAY MARRIAGE DECISN AND HOUNDS GOP

HILLARY CLTON'S GAY-MARRIAGE PROBLEM

December 1999: Clton told a group of gay ntributors at a fundraiser that she was agast the "don't ask, don't tell" ary policy signed by her hband. But I also believe that people mted gay marriag, as they believe them to be, should be given rights unr the law that regnize and rpect their relatnship.

October 2006: Clton told a group of gay elected officials that she would support same-sex marriage New York if a future ernor and Legislature chose to enact such a law. Augt 2007: In a Democratic primary bate sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign and LOGO Network (a gay-oriented TV statn) Clton was asked "What is at the heart of your opposn to same-sex marriage? Hillary Clton didn't rea om supportg same-sex marriage for polil reasons—before last year, she earntly believed that marriage equaly should be nied to gays and lbians.

HILLARY CLTON CLAR 'GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS'

* The d tensn stemmed om persistent qutng as Clton obfted on an issue that uld damage her chanc a 2016 primary but is relatively unlikely to hurt her a ntt agast a Republin, given that her aln is so much stronger on gay rights than the opposn. Most famoly, the Silin Valley left forced the oter of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich for a 2008 donatn he ma to an anti-gay-marriage ballot iative. If she is to be believed, she also opposed gay marriage as recently as 2013, long after a majory of Amerins already held a more gay-iendly posn.

HILLARY CLTON HAD THE CHANCE TO MAKE GAY RIGHTS HISTORY. SHE REFED.

Would the subset of Democrats who thought 2008 opposn to gay marriage should prevent a man om beg CEO 2013 really support the 2015 printial mpaign of a woman who openly opposed gay marriage until last year?

Dog so would seem to show nsistency, yet there's a strong argument to be ma that Clton's anti-gay-marriage past shouldn't drive cisns to support or oppose her.

No one doubts she will be a strong supporter of gay equaly if elected print, now that all the polil centiv to take that posn are aligned. There is, however, a vol segment of the left that is vted likeng people who opposed gay marriage to racists who opposed terracial marriage.

REMEMBER WHEN HILLARY CLTON WAS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE?

There is also rentment om gays who feel that the Cltons wronged them the Sullivan's perspective is stctive:She was the send most powerful person an admistratn a cril era for gay rights. Clton also left gay service-members the lurch, doublg the rate of their discharg om the ary, and signed DOMA, the high watermark of anti-gay legislatn Amerin history. I was edor of TNR for five years of the Cltons, aggrsively wrg and publishg articl favor of marriage equaly and ary service, and saw the Cltons’ irratn wh and hostily to gay activists up close.

But I thk of her posn as the same as the eponymo gay rights anizatn the Cltons ntrolled the 1990s, the Human Rights Campaign. Fally, there is wispread amnia among Democrats more broadly, who reflexively assume that Hillary Clton has of urse supported gay marriage her heart of hearts for years.

HILLARY CLTON’S GAY RIGHTS EVOLUTN

"So what's like when you're office and you have to do all the polil lculatns to not be able to support somethg like gay marriage that you actually believe ? " The NPR host is seemgly unable to nceive of the fact than an inic Democrat like Clton uld have really, tly opposed gay equaly all those years.

HILLARY CLTON'S VIEWS EVOLVE ON GAY MARRIAGE, JT TIME FOR PRINTIAL MPAIGN

In liberal circl, now seems impossible to have red eply about human rights, to have red about gay rights, and to have objected to gay marriage, even though that was the exact posn of almost all liberals very recently. The Supreme Court stck down parts of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented the feral ernment om regnizg gay marriage. Those who only joed the ph for gay marriage 2013 after spendg years fendg DOMA were, que obvly, "ls mted" to gay equaly than those who spent years or s urgg marriage equaly.

GROSS: You know, I'm sayg, I'm sorry, I jt want to clarify what I was sayg, I was sayg that you maybe really believed this all along, you know, believed gay marriage all along, but felt for polil reasons Ameri wasn't ready yet and you uldn't say .

This was an credibly new and important ia that people on the ont l of the gay rights movement began to talk about and slowly but surely nvced others of the rightns of that posn. So aga, acrdg to Clton, she did not favor gay marriage her heart prr to 2013 and reaed om sayg so bee Amerins weren't yet ready for that posn.

HILLARY CLTON PRAIS GAY MARRIAGE DECISN AND HOUNDS GOP

Her rhetoric is perfect for assuagg the disfort of general-electn voters who started supportg gay marriage relatively late the game. ”HILLARY CLINTON FUELS 2020 SPECULATION TALKING TRUMP, PAST ROMANCES IN WILD HOWARD STERN INTERVIEWReporter Trish Bendix, who has won the 2015 Sarah Pett Memorial Award for excellence LGBT media and is a member of the Natnal Lbian and Gay Journalists Associatn, didn’t appreciate Clton’s rponse to the qutn.

In 2011, when the state of New York legalized same-sex marriage, Clton (then servg as secretary of state) spoke to the crowd at a gay-pri celebratn and hailed the “historic vote New York [that] giv such visibily and credibily to everythg that so many of you have done over so many years.