The Gay Marriage Fight Between Hillary and Bernie: Setting the Record Straight

[portlander23]

The Gay Marriage Fight Between Hillary and Bernie: Setting the Record Straight
Gil Troy
History News Network

When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he become the most gay-friendly presidential nominee, ever. His openly gay close friend, David Mixner, had a prominent role in the campaign. Four years earlier, Michael Dukakis had refused Mixner’s offer of one million dollars raised from the gay community, fearing being tagged as a liberal – which he was anyway.

The gays-in-the-military dilemma was a gut issue, central to two powerful groups’ identities. Gays were framing full, public acceptance as a modern civil rights issue, appealing to an increasingly fluid and tolerant society that deified individual rights and abhorred any perceived discrimination. The military culture, however, remained hyper-masculine and homophobic, with the channeling of male sexual aggression underlying much military discipline. Belonging to a tradition-bound institution, military men – and most were men – instinctively perceived sexual conservatism, gender roles, and conventional family arrangements as society’s bedrock.

Clinton’s resulting “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was too slick for liberals and too hippie for conservatives. It compelled individuals to lie in an institution that prized honor. He and his aides spent more time firefighting early on about gays rather than cultivating the policy initiatives candidate Clinton had pitched. The first time Clinton’s new Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, met the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the gay issue dominated. “At the end, we spent a few minutes on Iraq, Somalia and Bosnia,” one general reported.

Still, for all these shifts, the politics of gay marriage was toxic, especially for a Democratic president and former anti-war George McGovern supporter who in the end would not win 50 percent of the popular vote. Clinton’s “Good Father” re-election strategy sought to seize the cultural high road from Republicans by going for the center, and fighting for traditional values as intensely as Ronald Reagan did.

That was why Clinton infuriated his gay allies by signing the Defense of Marriage Act in September, 1996. The law defined marriage as only taking place between a man and a woman, while allowing states not to recognize gay marriages sanctioned in other states. Conservatives hoped to build a firewall against the anticipated spread of state-sanctioned civil unions, while embarrassing the president on the eve of the election.

Clinton, burned by the gays in the military issue in 1993, now proceeded more cautiously. Signing the law at 12:50 AM, with no photographers, he tried explaining to his gay friends that the movement would suffer more if he lost the re-election campaign. He added a written statement, saying: “the enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination, violence or intimidation against any person on the basis of sexual orientation.” He did not even mention this ignominious moment in his detailed memoirs, and after the presidency endorsed overturning DOMA.

At the time, Hillary Clinton was in relative eclipse in the White House. There is a fascinating question here regarding how much a First Lady is responsible for her husband’s actions, especially when she becomes a presidential candidate. Bernie Sanders was one of the few legislators who did oppose DOMA, but it wasn’t until 2006 that he endorsed gay marriage, making this whole he-said-she-said about DOMA in the 1990s a red herring. The fairest conclusion to draw is that attitudes toward gays, and especially toward gay marriage, probably have transformed faster than any major attitude shift in decades. In 2008, Barack Obama not only failed to endorse gay marriage, but the surge of church-going conservative African-American voters helped set back gay rights in California.

The fairer questions, then, for both candidates, would be: what did you learn about yourself during this dramatic change in attitudes on such a major issue and, looking forward, how would your administration advance gay rights? An historical tug of war only muddies the record, muddies reputations, and distorts the truth, covering up the consensus position held by most politicians, Democrats, and Americans at the time.

Related:

Clinton’s claim that DOMA had to be enacted to stop an anti-gay marriage amendment

How Bernie Sanders Evolved on Gay Marriage

[upaloopa]

1. This isn't a fight between Hillary and Bernie

It is an attempt by Bernie and his supporters to salvage his campaign.
Hillary won't take the bait.

[frylock]

2. lol at salvage his campaign!