How Hillary Clton evolved on gay marriage - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• HILLARY CLTON'S GAY-MARRIAGE PROBLEM
• REMEMBER WHEN HILLARY CLTON WAS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE?
• HILLARY CLTON'S VIEWS EVOLVE ON GAY MARRIAGE, JT TIME FOR PRINTIAL MPAIGN
• HILLARY CLTON ANNOUNC HER SUPPORT OF GAY MARRIAGE
• HILLARY CLTON’S CHANGG VIEWS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• HILLARY CLTON HAD THE CHANCE TO MAKE GAY RIGHTS HISTORY. SHE REFED.
• HILLARY CLTON ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE
• HILLARY CLTON ANNOUNC HER SUPPORT FOR GAY MARRIAGE
• HOW HILLARY CLTON EVOLVED ON GAY MARRIAGE
• HILLARY CLTON’S LONG ROAD TO SUPPORTG GAY MARRIAGE

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.

"I have supported the kd of rights and rponsibili that are beg extend to gay upl Vermont, " she said. 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.

REMEMBER WHEN HILLARY CLTON WAS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE?

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?

June 2014: NPR’s Terry Gross grilled Clton about her past posns’ on gay marriage what led to a tty exchange. New York Daily News, "Hil hails to the right on gay marriage, " (Accsed Nexis) March 19, 2013.

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. * 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.

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

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.

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?

HILLARY CLTON ANNOUNC HER SUPPORT OF GAY MARRIAGE

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.

HILLARY CLTON’S CHANGG VIEWS ON 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.

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

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. "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 ? "You obvly feel very mted to human rights and you obvly put gay rights as part of human rights.

" 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. 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.

HILLARY CLTON ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE

And then leavg that posn I was able to very quickly announce that I was fully support of gay marriage.

Gross rais some of the pots a subsequent exchange:GROSS: So you mentn that you believe state by state for gay marriage. The Supreme Court stck down parts of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevented the feral ernment om regnizg gay marriage.

But a lot of people already believed , a lot of people already supported gay marriage, back the '90s.

HILLARY CLTON ANNOUNC HER SUPPORT FOR 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 .

CLINTON: I did not grow up even imagg gay marriage and I don't thk you probably did eher. 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.

Her rhetoric is perfect for assuagg the disfort of general-electn voters who started supportg gay marriage relatively late the game. 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.

HOW HILLARY CLTON EVOLVED ON GAY MARRIAGE

Polil science profsor Pl Kengor noted at the time that Hillary Clton had fally "endorsed gay marriage, " statg that he believed she had unrgone "an hont shift":.

[Her posn] changed this week, when the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group wh which Clton has personal ti, posted a vio where Clton me out favor of gay marriage. Some will charge that Clton has embraced gay marriage out of polil opportunism, that she se the directn her party is movg on this issue, and therefore lookg ahead to the 2016 printial race, there's no way she would oppose gay marriage.

GROSS: “You know I’m jt sayg, I’m sorry — I jt want to clarify what I was sayg — no, I was sayg that you maybe really believed this all along, but, you know believed gay marriage all along, but felt for polil reasons Ameri wasn’t ready yet and you uldn’t say . Hillary Clton wasted no time -optg today’s historic Supreme Court lg on gay marriage as a promotnal vice for her printial n. ”A prr, she stood by her hband as he signed the Defense of Marriage Act, a piece of legislatn that dified gay Ameri’s send-class stat.

HILLARY CLTON’S LONG ROAD TO SUPPORTG GAY MARRIAGE

So ’s fair to say that Hillary Clton has had a longstandg opposn to gay marriage—eher that, or she was too aaid to speak tthfully about her nvictns for polil reasons, which is really jt as bad. The Tale of the Tape: Hillary Clton's Gay Marriage Evolutn | WNYC | New York Public Rad, Podsts, Live Streamg Rad, News. Prevly, Clton had only said publicly that she supported civil former first lady did advote for LGBT rights while at the State Department: “Gay rights are human rights, ” she said durg a 2011 speech HRC print, Chad Griff, lled Wednday’s more direct feral g-out party a “strong statement”.

“It was good to see that Clton, after much heel-draggg, has fally e to le, ” he told the, Clton has a plited history on gay she was first lady, former print Bill Clton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma), which prohibed the feral ernment om regnizg same-sex marriag. Much of that law was stck down by the supreme urt the 2013 se of Uned Stat v year’s new landmark se before the high urt, Obergefell v Hodg, reprent a kd of full-circle rotatn by the judiciary branch after Clton long-rid 1996 signature of Doma, which he admted to regrettg jt before the Wsdor se was Clton also approved the ntroversial “don’t ask, don’t tell”, which prevented openly gay men and women om servg the US Maryland ernor Mart O’Malley – perhaps Hillary Clton’s most aggrsive petor for the Democratic nomatn 2016, though he has not clared – has already said that same-sex marriage is a human right and should not be left to the released a vio on Wednday, which his narratn says, a not-so-subtle dig at the petn, that “history celebrat profil urage, not profil nvenience”. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clton has announced that she supports same-sex marriage, sayg gays and lbians are "full and equal cizens and serve the rights of cizenship.