How Hillary Clton evolved on gay marriage - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• HILLARY CLTON HAD THE CHANCE TO MAKE GAY RIGHTS HISTORY. SHE REFED.
• HILLARY CLTON'S GAY-MARRIAGE PROBLEM
• HILLARY CLTON TELLS GAY BOY: ‘YOUR FUTURE IS GOG TO BE AMAZG’
• HILLARY CLTON CLAR 'GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS'
• HILLARY CLTON, LOUDLY AND PROUDLY, TAPS INTO A VE OF SUPPORT AMONG GAY VOTERS
• HOW HILLARY CLTON EVOLVED ON GAY MARRIAGE
• HILLARY CLTON ENDORS GAY MARRIAGE
• REMEMBER WHEN HILLARY CLTON WAS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE?

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

Durg her first n for print 2008, Hillary Clton had an opportuny to bee an undisputed lear the gay rights she prepared for a fom on the gay-oriented Logo work, she reached out to her iend Hilary Rosen, a polil nsultant who is a lbian.

While most natnal policians have been slow to evolve on gay marriage, Clton’s handlg of was particularly sadng to some activists bee they had expected more.

Clton and her hband, Bill, had stood out as beg among the first to actively urt the gay muny as an tert group and donor base — and yet they were unwillg to stand wh the muny on one of s biggt civil rights issu.

HILLARY CLTON'S GAY-MARRIAGE PROBLEM

The muny had a straed relatnship wh the prev Democratic nomee, Michael Dakis, whom activists heckled at a mpaign event when he said he didn’t see the need to issue an orr banng discrimatn agast gays the feral Clton sought to clu the muny as a part of his aln. “I have a visn and you’re a part of , ” Bill Clton told the crowd, relled Richard Soris, who advised the Clton Whe Hoe on lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr spoke about creasg fundg for AIDS rearch and endg discrimatn agast gay men and lbians.

HILLARY CLTON TELLS GAY BOY: ‘YOUR FUTURE IS GOG TO BE AMAZG’

The rult was the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they were not open about their sexual who spoke to Hillary Clton at the time said she enuraged her hband to fd more support Congrs to avoid the promise. Still, some gay activists hoped that she might be a voice for them the Wt, who at the time head the rerdg dtry tra associatn, asked Clton whether she uld help change her hband’s md.

Rosen and other gay rights activists hoped that Hillary Clton might undo some of her hband’s legacy when she started to n for the Senate.

HILLARY CLTON CLAR 'GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS'

Wavg along to onlookers shoutg, “I love you, ” Clton beme the first first lady to walk the cy’s r gay pri, as she was celebratg same-sex relatnships, some activists New York were losg 2004, the mayor of San Francis started approvg marriage licens for same-sex upl. ”Clton’s perpetual balancg act unnerved some Clton began holdg fundraisers for her Senate reelectn mpaign 2006, van Capelle urged gay donors to whhold their checks bee “she didn’t earn .

Allida Black, a historian and longtime iend, said she chose to foc her nversatns wh Clton on prsg for polici to allow gay people to vis their partners the hospal or bury their ceased loved on. “You tsted her bee of the way she treated , ” Black Colls, a profsnal basketball player who beme iends wh Chelsea Clton while livg Wilbur Hall wh her at Stanford Universy, marveled at how fortable Bill and Hillary were dancg among gay upl at an ’80s prom that Chelsea had the Wt Village to celebrate her 30th birthday 2010. ”As secretary of state, Clton allowed same-sex partners of Foreign Service officers the same travel benefs at married gave a speech Geneva 2011 which she said, “Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights, ” an echo of the women’s rights speech she had livered Cha as first May 2012, as polls showed more than half of the untry supportg same-sex marriage, top Democrats began ditg their support.

HILLARY CLTON, LOUDLY AND PROUDLY, TAPS INTO A VE OF SUPPORT AMONG GAY VOTERS

” ’s note: Material has been add to this story to more fully scribe Hilary Rosen’s perspective on Hillary Clton’s evolutn on gay marriage. ”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. 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?

HOW HILLARY CLTON EVOLVED ON GAY 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. * 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.

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 ENDORS 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.

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.

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 ?

REMEMBER WHEN HILLARY CLTON WAS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE?

" 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. 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.