Sixteen years ago, Hillary Clton clearly articulated an anti-gay marriage posn. Now, she uldn't be a more full-throated supporter.
Contents:
- REMEMBER WHEN HILLARY CLTON WAS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE?
- HILLARY CLTON'S GAY-MARRIAGE PROBLEM
- TIMELE: BILL CLTON’S EVOLUTN ON GAY RIGHTS
- GAY MARRIAGE
- HIGH-PROFILE POLICIANS WHO CHANGED THEIR POSNS ON GAY MARRIAGE
- BILL CLTON SAYS ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW HE SIGNED SHOULD BE OVERTURNED
- HILLARY CLTON'S VIEWS EVOLVE ON GAY MARRIAGE, JT TIME FOR PRINTIAL MPAIGN
- BILL CLTON COM OUT SUPPORT OF GAY MARRIAGE
REMEMBER WHEN HILLARY CLTON WAS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE?
Hillary Clton wasted no time -optg today’s historic Supreme Court lg on gay marriage as a promotnal vice for her printial n. “Proud to celebrate,” Clton clared on Twter, spe the fact that relatively recently she thought same sex marriage should rema illegal. * clinton against 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. 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.
HILLARY CLTON'S GAY-MARRIAGE PROBLEM
* clinton against 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? 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.
TIMELE: BILL CLTON’S EVOLUTN ON GAY RIGHTS
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. * clinton against gay marriage *
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. He beme the first Print history to endorse gay-rights legislatn by announcg his support for a new feral hate-crim statute that clud sexual orientatn.
He ntued, and even stepped up, appotments of openly gay Amerins to important Admistratn posns, cludg the recs appotment of Jam Hormel as the first openly gay Ambassador. The ia of same-sex marriage was very unpopular at the time, but the prevailg legal amework of 1996 raised the prospect of marriage equaly advot wng one state, leadg gay upl om around the untry to flood to get married then mandg regnn their home state unr the "full fah and cred" clse of the Constutn.
GAY MARRIAGE
His prs secretary scribed the marriage panic as "gay bag, pure and simple, " and Clton himself snorted that the issue was "hardly a problem that is sweepg the untry.
The ntext was that, Soris's words, Clton "was the first ndidate for natnal office to seek and receive support om an anized gay polil muny, which was self new to printial polics.
HIGH-PROFILE POLICIANS WHO CHANGED THEIR POSNS ON GAY MARRIAGE
" He had posned himself as the gay-iendly ndidate 1992 and tend to do so aga 1996, and throughout his princy he advoted for many measur — rangg om employment discrimatn laws to the appotment of openly gay people to posns of thory the ernment — that were important to the anized gay muny.
BILL CLTON SAYS ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW HE SIGNED SHOULD BE OVERTURNED
In the same op-ed, he ma reference to an amic brief filed the DOMA legislatn that argued that "many supporters of the bill known as DOMA believed that s passage 'would fe a movement to enact a nstutnal amendment banng gay marriage, which would have end the bate for a generatn or more. And 2009, Bill Clton straightforwardly reunted, "We were attemptg at the time, a very reactnary Congrs, to head off an attempt to send a nstutnal amendment banng gay marriage to the stat.
HILLARY CLTON'S VIEWS EVOLVE ON GAY MARRIAGE, JT TIME FOR PRINTIAL MPAIGN
Sam Ste and Jennifer Benry approached this om a human angle and asked the people who led gay rights groups the 1990s, who said the nstutnal amendment angle never me up. 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.
BILL CLTON COM OUT SUPPORT OF GAY MARRIAGE
* 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. 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.