Hillary Clinton sat down with The Washington Blade‘s Kevin Naff this weekend to reiterate her strong support of gay rights. The former First Lady again said she supports civil unions, repealing DADT and eradicating parts of the Defense of Marriage Act, which, she says, helps protect state constitutions from exclusive marital definitions. Clinton also took issue with competitor Barack Obama supporters touting his recent gay mentions. Says Clinton, I find it ironic since Sen. Obama had his gospel tour with [Donnie] McClurkin that he and his supporters would take credit for that.” McClurkin, of course, has an anti-gay past and his inclusion caused a major scandal last last year. [Washington Blade]
Hillary Talks Gay
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marco
Bush (VP), Bush (VP), Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush… Clinton?
30 Years of these people.
And then what — Jeb?
Go Obama!
mozzer13
That’s lovely, Sen. Clinton. Now, could you say that sort of thing to audiences that aren’t all gay?
Meeg
its sure taken these two long enough to address gay issues. let’s face it: at the beginning of their campaigns they were falling over each other to remain silent on gay rights for fear I’m sure of appearing too liberal and alienating some independents. It’s taken this prolonged ground war for primary votes/delegates in order to get them to speak up about these issues. Is this just desperate pandering? Are they going to try their best to back to “Don’t ask don’t tell” about their views on civil unions after the convention? All that said, I support Obama but I rather suspect Hillary is a more sincere friend of the gays.
steve
ok, i’ll be the bad guy here
just because she dangles a “gay carrot” out in front of me doesn’t erase the fact that she voted for the iraq war
period.
one whack job preacher vs. the lives of thousands
sorry, i’m not gonna play lap dog & i can’t put on blinders to a previously sketchy voting record
not lock-stepping on this one
i -do- believe there is a level of culpability
here’s a great reference tool for those claiming that obama is “anti-gay”:
http://pride.barackobama.com/page/content/lgbthome
oh yeah, this naff guy is the same one who said we weren’t supposed to watch “hairspray” cause john travolta was in it [rolling eyes]
anyone touches my “saturday night fever” soundtrack, i’ll cut off their fingers
i kid, i kid… storta 😀
anyway, another “bad gay” for obama here
leomoore
I don’t buy into Obama’s claim he never voted for the Iraq War. Of course he didn’t. He wasn’t in Congress until 2006. We will never know how he would have voted had he been in Congress in 2002 and 2003. While there, he would have been subjected to the same pressures, lies, and secret “mis”information that was fed to Congress. I opposed the war as soon as the Shrub brought it up, but I don’t claim to know how things would have turned out if fed crap intelligence, which was made public at the time.
I will loyal to the Democratic Party in November, but I don’t think Obama has a clue about how vicious the Republicans will be. Hillary Clinton has been through that crucible. I just have my doubts about how Obama will cope with the darkling operatives of the wingnuts.
emb
Well, Hill, I find it ironic that you’re up on your high horse about Barack palling around with a religious nutjob, when you accepted donations and support from Bishop Eddie Long in Atlanta (who hosts an ex-gay ministry and has marched against marriage equality) and publicly thanked California Rev Harold Mayberry for his fight “for civil rights and equality†when Mayberry regularly preaches against homos. (check out the Washington Blade, Nov 2 07). And let’s not forget her co-president’s fabulous DADT and DOMA, while we’re at it, which she now opposes. Nobody’s hands are clean here on GLBT issues, so other issues need to be considered–like, as Bad Gay Steve suggests, Iraq (which, like DOMA and DADT, she apparently was for before she was against).
emb
Leomoore: I totally LOVE “darkling operatives of the wingnuts”!! However, I do take issue with the idea that HC is a better nominee because the repubs have already gotten practice beating up on her…seems to me we’re just handing them raw meat, which they’re well-armed for. Sure they’ll break out the nasty with Obama (I suspect his autobiography will provide a good deal of ammunition), but why make it easy for ’em? There’s a republican attack machine all well-oiled and ready for Hillary.
And as for the Iraq vote, other dems who saw the same intel managed to conclude that bush was full of crap; I suspect HC didn’t want to look “weak” at a time of high approval ratings for the idiot-in-chief. That’s not really showing leadership.
But like you say, I’ll fall in line like a good gay dem come November.
seitan-on-a-stick
Hillary, you are our last hope to defeat the GOP darkside John McCain (the NEW Dick Cheney?) Where is Obiwan Kenobi? I mean Barack Obama when you need some clarification on how Gay he’s willing to go for us? Not very, so far…
Robert
No. 7: “I suspect HC didn’t want to look “weak†at a time of high approval ratings for the idiot-in-chief. That’s not really showing leadership.”
Speculation.
todd
It was Bill Clinton who told Kerry to sell the Gays down the River in the 2004 election. Kerry could not bring himself to do it. You won’t see Hillary touting gay rights anywhere but in front of a room full of them.
hisurfer
Seven days until our caucus … I don’t think Hawaii has ever had a caucus that mattered before. Usually someone’s machine has it wrapped long before the campaign reaches us.
As for this article? I’m neutral on it. It doesn’t sway me either way. It is exactly what I would expect a Democrat to say, with no surprises and no bombs.
What I need to see from Hillary is definite proof that it won’t be Bill-2, or that it won’t be four years of playing nasty (and fighting to seat the MI and FL delegates is playing nasty, it’s un-democratic, it’s Rove-style politics, it’s casting doubts).
And what I need to see from Obama is some cojones.
Bill Perdue
The Democrats, including Obama or Hillary, stabbed the antiwar movement in the back. They were elected to end the war but support Bush at every turn, funding and sustaining the genocidal fury of Bush’s bipartisan oil piracy that’s killed over a million Iraqis and killed or mauled thousands of GI’s. People who support them approve of that.
The Democrats, who some think deserve another chance, stabbed working people in the back. They always vote with Republicans to give tax breaks to the rich and pull the safety net of unemployment insurance, health coverage and welfare benefits from working people. Their support of those polices along with union busting, the export of union jobs and NAFTA have sabotaged our standard of lining. People who support them approve of that.
The Democrats stabbed immigrant and imported workers in the back. They support NAFTA. When people fled the devastation it caused to the economies of Mexico and Central America Democrats refused to welcome them and insure that they’re treated equably; they turned a cold shoulder to their plight. People who support them approve of that.
The Democrats, who some want us to vote for in spite of their record stabbed us in the back when they gutted ENDA, dropped the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill and pigheadedly refuse to repeal DOMA and DADT. Barney Frank openly despises transgendered and transsexual people.
As Matt Foreman says ‘”Is our movement going to be once again seduced by lofty words, invitations to fancy cocktail parties and government appointments, or are we going to insist on tangible deliverables? Are we going to be satisfied with a few crumbs, or demand more?”
Giving the Democrats another to at us is suicidal. If they win you’d better be wearing body armor and watch your back. And don’t blame anyone but yourself if you get betrayed again – the odds are you will.
A Republican politician is a baboon in a people suit with a totalitarian christian attached at the hip. A Democratic politician is a Republican in drag.
hells kitchen guy
I’m OK with either one. The Dems are fielding two excellent candidates who each bring their own unique skill set to the table.
And all these right-wingnuts carping about the party imploding because of identity politics is whistling in the dark. I think most people feel the way I do – that whoever wins, the party faithful will line up behind him. (Or her!)
Interesting (not really) how people like Bill Purdue snipe from the sidelines without giving us benighted yahoos (i.e., the voting public) any alternatives. Who you voting for, Bill? Last time I checked, Stalin wasn’t running this year.
mozzer13
Bill, one of the reasons we have this ridiculous war is that Ralph Nader convinced enough people that there was no difference between democrats and republicans. If Gore had been president, we would never have been in Iraq. It matters, Bill. It matters a lot. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t hold them accountable for their actions, some of which I find very distasteful. But regardless of which one of them is on the ticket, I’ll be voting for a democrat this year rather than casting a protest vote. There is too much at state, militarily and in the federal court system.
hells kitchen guy
mozzer13: You’re wasting precious algorithms.
Bill Perdue
Mozzer13, you’re wrong. This is not a ridiculous war, it’s a genocidal war. Democrats and Republicans have used violence to protect their Middle Eastern oil interests since the 1950’s. Since then they’ve enlisted reactionaries like the Shah, the royal Saudis, the zionists and anyone else who’ll help them get oil. Tens of millions of us don’t find the war distasteful; we find it treasonable and wonder why the craven Democrats refuse to impeach Bush and Cheney and why they won’t consider convening an International War Crimes Tribunal.
Ironically, it’s the military themselves who oppose this war more militantly than the Democrats. When Bush opens his mouth about Iran they call him a liar and refute him. They’re pissed that Bush and the Democrats support an unwinnable war. They at least, learned something from Vietnam.
Bill Clinton’s policy of trade sanctions against the Iraqis was starving and killing Iraqi children long before Bush2 got elected. It wasn’t Nader who defeated the Democrats in 2000 and 2004. They shot themselves down because of Billary’s support for DOMA, NAFTA and DADT and their policy of wrecking unemployment insurance and welfare. Millions people were so disgusted with the Democrats that they stayed home out of disgust with the Democrats union busting policies. (And all those stains on Monica’s skirt [s] didn’t help any either.)
As for the courts, at best they react to our struggle on an occasional basis. But they will not GRANT us our equality, we have to take it. Bill Clinton appointed a known homophobe to the US Fifth District court of Appeals. Dianne Feinstein, Pelosi and Reid actually spearheaded a successful Democratic (sic) effort to place Bush nominees on the US Sixth District Court of Appeals and as US attorney General.
CCSea
I am quickly losing respect for Senator Clinton. Gay baiting Obama is reprehensible.
For the record, Obama is better on gay issues than Clinton– Obama supports full repeal of DOMA (instead of Clinton’s partial repeal); he fully supports UAFA to provide immigration rights for same-sex partners (instead of Clinton’s tepid support “in principle”). Also, Obama is unafraid to say the words gay and lesbian in front of nongay audiences, something that Clinton scrupulously avoids.
Don't Ask Don't Tell Senator Clinton
Is it me or wasn’t it her husband that made it impossible for gays to serve openly and proudly in the armed forces? Let us not throw stones in glass houses Senator Clinton.
emb
Interesting how we’re fracturing all over the place: we are presented with two interesting candidates with unique abilities, either of which would be a VAST improvement over the past 8 years, and we’re falling into three self-destructive and self-defeating camps: People who love Hillary and feel the need to tell the world that Barack is useless; People who love Barack and feel the need to tell the world that Hillary is awful; and (strangely) people who’ve decided that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between republicans and democrats and who will either stay home or vote for useless and/or awful parties–an act that is certainly NOT “throwing away” their vote, because it has a real effect: the splintering of the moderate/liberal left will result in four or eight more years of republicans. And we’ve seen how nicely that works.
Sadly for the highminded among us, we don’t live in a perfect (or particularly perfectable) world. Longterm goals are excellent, but we need to take action now that leads there, not just pine for some magically-appearing utopian workers’ and peasants’ paradise.
And it’s actually true that Gore could have won in 2000 without Florida if he’d won Ohio, which he missed by a margin about equal to votes cast for Nader. Old news, but Thanks again, naderheads. You sure taught us all a lesson.
Sometimes it’s more important to end a known badness with a less-bad alternative, than to hold out for the perfect. Clinton and Obama have many flaw, faults, and serious imperfections, particuarly when viewed myopically through a gay lens. But we’ve lived through bush (well, some of us have: those who haven’t died overseas fighting his war or here at home suffering from his policies), and isn’t even a flawed democratic alternative preferable to four years of a man who’d like us to stay in iraq for a hundred years?
Bill Perdue
EMB – you’re wrong. Voting for the lesser evil candidates of the Democratic (sic) or Republican Party’s IS a wasted vote and a shameful vote, unless of course you admire the way they gutted ENDA, dropped the Hate Crimes bill and refuse to repeal the Clintons DOMA and DADT. If you like their open bigotry, their war and the economic chaos they cause then you’re in the right party, but just say so.
Gore lost in 2000 because the Democrats exported jobs, passed NAFTA, and demolished welfare , unemployment and health insurance. They refused to pass bill that would make anti-discrimination laws meaningful or and expand them to include us. And lying about the stains on Monica’s dresses didn’t help. People stayed home in droves because of the betrayals of the Democrats. They did it again in 2004 because of the earlier betrayals and because the Democrats wouldn’t promise to end the war, much less support immediate and total withdrawal from the region. Nader, whose program is mildly reformist, would have had no impact without all those Democratic betrayals and the consequent voter boycotts.
And now the Democrats are at it again. Elected to end the war, they consistently vote for it. Obama and Clinton refuse to end the war and When you They rammed thorough Bush Appointees to the bench and in the Attorney General. Clinton wants to nuke Iran and Obama dementedly wants to attack the Pakistanis, who have their won nukes and can bite back. The economy, because of pandering to the rich, is nose diving. They stabbed us in the back on four different pieces of legislation. Barney Frank openly despises transgendered people.
When you vote for them you’ll be endorsing and welcoming more of the same. Your candidates are prowar, pander to bigots and the rich. That’s their record and distortions and apologies won’t change it.
Meeg
Bill, you’re an idiot. If you want to go ahead and throw away your vote by casting it for a party that doesn’t have a chance in hell of winning when there are really differences betweent he viable candidates out there go right ahead.
Bill Perdue
Meeg, you’re a turncoat. If you support the Democrats, who have only cosmetic difference with the Republicans then you support the war, economic chaos, and the backstabbing bigots who gutted ENDA, dropped the hate crimes bill and refused to repeal their bigoted DOMA and DADT bills.
Voting for them is voting for their program, and that just what we’ll get – four or eight more years of Bush Lite. Voting Democratic (sic) is far worse than wasting your vote, it’s voting against the rest of us.
Meeg
I’m no turncoat. I’ve always been a Democrat.
Bill Perdue
“I’ve always been a Democrat.”
Like I said, Meeg, you’re a turncoat.
emb
So, Bill, in the Very Special World you live in, what exactly do you recommend that we DO? You’re quite clear on what you think we SHOULDN’T do (i.e., vote for Obama or Clinton or (I assume) McCain) based on a microscopic examination of single-issues that ignores broader implications, but nevermind), but what CONSTRUCTIVE advice might you have for us poor misguided creatures who think that voting in an election constitutes positive political expression?
Bill Perdue
EMB, I’m glad we’re finally clear on why Democrats lost in 2000 and 2004 – not because of Nader but they’re backstabbers who totally alienated and disgusted their constituents. It’s always better to be reality based than to rely on delusions and silly season hype.
What I think we should do is to continue to demand our full GLBT agenda, immediate withdrawal and harsh taxes on the rich to avoid economic disaster. That will help shatter the Democrats and Republicans and we should organize people as they leave those parties. We should recognize that voting for either of the twin parties is suicidal. There is no viable party to contest them this year; one of them will win and that’s not in our interest.
Voting for Clinton, McCain, Obama or Huckabee is voting for the enemy. It’s more than a wasted vote, it a disgraceful vote. If there are no Labor, socialist or communist candidates on the ballot here in Nevada then I’ll vote for ‘none of these candidates.” Tens of millions of others don’t have that ballot option and will again just sit it out in the sure knowledge that it makes absolutely no difference which of the major party’s wins. We won’t win until we can build a party to defeat them.