Timele: Bill Clton’s evolutn on gay rights

PROCLAMATN 7203—GAY AND LBIAN PRI MONTH, 1999
PROCLAMATN 7316—GAY AND LBIAN PRI MONTH, 2000
GAYS THE MILARY
HIGH-PROFILE POLICIANS WHO CHANGED THEIR POSNS ON GAY MARRIAGE
THE 1992 ELECTIONS: THE STATES -- THE GAY ISSUES; GAY AREAS ARE JUBILANT OVER CLTON
NOW DEFENSE OF GAY MARRIAGE, BILL CLTON
TIMELE: BILL CLTON’S EVOLUTN ON GAY RIGHTS

PROCLAMATN 7203—GAY AND LBIAN PRI MONTH, 1999

* bill clinton is gay *

Thirty years ago this month, at the Stonewall Inn New York Cy, a urageo group of cizens risted harassment and mistreatment, settg motn a cha of events that would bee known as the Stonewall Uprisg and the birth of the morn gay and lbian civil rights movement. Gays and lbians, their fai and iends, celebrate the anniversary of Stonewall every June Ameri as Gay and Lbian Pri Month; and, earlier this month, the Natnal Park Service add the Stonewall Inn, as well as the nearby park and neighborhood streets surroundg , to the Natnal Register of Historic Plac.

That effort has rulted a groundbreakg gui that provis practil guidance to school admistrators and teachers for velopg a prehensive approach to protectg all stunts, cludg gays and lbians, om harassment and vlence.

I enurage all Amerins to observe this month wh appropriate programs, ceremoni, and activi that celebrate our diversy, and to remember throughout the year the gay and lbian Amerins whose many and varied ntributns have enriched our natnal life. Sce the Stonewall uprisg New York Cy more than 30 years ago, the gay and lbian rights movement has uned gays and lbians, their fai and iends, and all those mted to jtice and equaly a csa to outlaw discrimatory laws and practic and to protect gays and lbians om prejudice and persecutn.

PROCLAMATN 7316—GAY AND LBIAN PRI MONTH, 2000

This June, regnizg the joys and sorrows that the gay and lbian movement has wnsed and the work that remas to be done, we observe Gay and Lbian Pri Month and celebrate the progrs we have ma creatg a society more clive and acceptg of gays and lbians.

I hope that this new lennium we will ntue to break down the walls of fear and prejudice and work to build a bridge to unrstandg and tolerance, until gays and lbians are afford the same rights and rponsibili as all Amerins. I enurage all Amerins to observe this month wh appropriate programs, ceremoni, and activi that celebrate our diversy and regnize the gay and lbian Amerins whose many and varied ntributns have enriched our natnal life. On May 23, 1996, as DOMA began s rapid journey through Congrs, the New York Tim reported:Gee Stephanopoulos, a senr Printial adviser who has overseen the issue, said: “It’s wrong for people to e this issue to monize gays and lbians and ’s pretty clear that that was the tent tryg to create a buzz on this issue.

My advice to the people who arranged for the thgs was to get done and out of the way as quickly as possible; he signed late at night one eveng after returng om a day-long mpaign Defense of Marriage Act beme law, and Print Clton was reëlected, aga wh overwhelmg support om gay Amerins.

GAYS THE MILARY

In fact, many believe that was the Bh mpaign’s very strategic placement of anti-gay-marriage state nstutnal ballot iativ throughout morate and nservative leang stat (like Oh) which brought out nservative Bh voters and rried the day for him that electn. A DOMA veto would likely have been overridn anyway, and so even if Print Clton had been reëlected, we would still have had the Defense of Marriage his reëlectn, Print Clton beme nsirably bolr on gay-rights issu. Officers would no longer ask about their subordat’ orientatn and, as long as service members didn’t tell superrs they were gay, and didn’t engage homosexual acts while on active duty, they were ee to serve.

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.

HIGH-PROFILE POLICIANS WHO CHANGED THEIR POSNS ON GAY MARRIAGE

“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.

THE 1992 ELECTIONS: THE STATES -- THE GAY ISSUES; GAY AREAS ARE JUBILANT OVER CLTON

” “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.

Wag did not succeed slowg the Defense of Marriage Act’s momentum, yet the Whe Hoe’s public ambivalence implied that Clton was actually wrtlg wh the possibily of a veto, unnecsarily raisg expectatns among gay supporters that would eventually provoke an even greater sense of betrayal.

“As I unrstand , what the bill do is state marriage is an stutn between a man and a woman that, among other thgs, is ed to brg children to the world, but the legal effect of the bill — as I unrstand , the only legal effect of the bill is to make clear that stat n ny regnn of gay marriag that occurred other stat, ” Clton said. The Print said was his unrstandg that the only legal effect of the bill is to make clear that stat n ny regnn of gay marriag that occur other stat and if that’s all do, he’ll sign , ” Patricia Lewis, a spokwoman who handled the gay media, wrote to a lleague immediately after learng what Clton had said at his prs nference wh Helmut Kohl.

NOW DEFENSE OF GAY MARRIAGE, BILL CLTON

From the moment Clton had announced three and a half months earlier that he would sign the bill if prented to him by Congrs, his Whe Hoe’s gay-and-lbian liaison operatn had agonized about how that moment would play out. Gay lobbyists had dread the moment that the Defense of Marriage Act would e for a Senate vote, but by the time passed by an 85-14 marg midafternoon of September 10, that was not even the gay-rights news of the day. That same day, the Employment Non-Discrimatn Act, which had been assumed ad for the 104th Congrs, me a sgle, promised vote short of beg the first piece of gay civil-rights legislatn to pass a hoe of Congrs, and had done so a Republin-ntrolled Senate.