Bernie, Hillary, and Bill timeline on gay rights

[Onlooker]

Last edited Thu Apr 28, 2016, 04:51 AM - Edit history (2)

This died quickly in the primaries forum, but thought I'd post it here, since some will probably find it interesting and I don't want my efforts to go for nought! If anyone has something to add or correct, I'll gladly recompile it.

It’s difficult to compare Bill, Hillary, and Bernie on gay rights since they held different jobs, represented different constituencies, and dealt with different political realities.

1983—Bernie Sanders issues a gay pride day proclamation as mayor of Burlington, VT.
1985--Sanders passes a law in Burlington, VT preventing housing discrimination against gays.
1991—Bill Clinton becomes first presidential candidate to court the gay vote.
1992-2000—Bill Clinton increases AIDS funding, fast track approval of AIDS drugs, tens of millions of dollars to educate and fight AIDS in high-risk communities.
1993—Bill Clinton proposes allowing gays in the military, is met with backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike, and compromises with Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell under threat of legislation to specifically exclude gays from the military.
1995--Bernie Sanders defends gays in the military and condemns a colleague on the Hose floor for referring to gays as "homos."
1996—Bill Clinton states he is opposed to gay marriage.
1996—With states already amending their constitutions to prevent gay marriage, Bill Clinton states that that DOMA “confirms the right of each state to determine its own policy,” but argues strongly for a discriminatory definition of gay marriage.
1996—Bernie votes against DOMA arguing that the decision on marriage should be left up to each state.
1997—Bill Clinton speaks at the Human Rights Campaign and comes out against discrimination in the workplace.
1997—Bill Clinton pushes for hate crimes legislation to include sexual orientation, but fails.
1997—Bill Clinton appoints openly gay US ambassador; he appoints over 150 openly gay people to various positions in government.
1997—Hillary Clinton works to defeat an effort to prevent unmarried and gay couples from adopting children; she prevails when such legislation is defeated in 1999.
1997—Bill Clinton delivers keynote address to Human Rights Campaign.
1998—Bill Clinton offers asylum to gays fleeing persecution.
1999—Hillary Clinton expresses support for domestic partnerships.
1999—After the Vermont Supreme Court rules that all citizens have the right to benefits of marriage, Sanders endorses the decision.
1999—Bill Clinton issues first gay and lesbian pride month proclamation.
1999—Bill Clinton becomes the first president to advocate for gay rights in his State of the Union
2000—Hillary’s staff pushes for an executive order banning discrimination by government contractors, based on FDRs anti-discrimination order to protect PoC.
2000—Bill Clinton issues executive order banning discrimination by government contractors
2006—Hillary Clinton expresses support for civil unions and says states should be free to make the decision on gay marriage.
2006—Sanders is asked if Vermont should legalize same-sex marriage, he said, “No, not right now, not after what we went through.” Sanders supports civil unions.
2007—Hillary Clinton still opposes gay marriage, but says it should be up to the states.
2009—Bill Clinton expresses support for gay marriage, but argues it’s up to each state
2009--Hillary Clinton grants State Dept. gay couples the same benefits as heterosexual couples.
2009—Bernie Sanders expresses support for gay marriage after Vermont legalizes it.
2011—Bill Clinton urges the legalization of gay marriage in New York.
2011--Hillary Clinton declares in Switzerland, that "gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights"
2013—Hillary Clinton supports for gay marriage.

Sources:
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/clinton-white-house-gay-rights-hillary-clinton-staff-116859
http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/timeline-bill-clintons-evolution-gay-rig
http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/Accomplishments/ac399.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/06/13/gross-misunderstanding-of-hillary-clinton-on-gay-marriage/
http://time.com/4089946/bernie-sanders-gay-marriage/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/01/hillary-clinton-lgbt-_n_7706748.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/interviews/clinton.html

[Politicub]

1. Great chronology

Thanks for posting it!

[Bluenorthwest]

2. You included many opinion pieces but left out the most recent factual evidence:

How anyone could think that much less say that on TV is beyond my comprehension. The fact that her supporters do not mid that ignorance and bigotry is also beyond by comprehension. Obviously they do not know the history either, nor do they know the current AIDS status nor who is most vulnerable in today's world......

[Onlooker]

3. A few points ...

Last edited Wed Apr 20, 2016, 08:23 PM - Edit history (2)

... Hillary apologized two hours later, and if I start adding things that are that recent, then I should also add that Hillary was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, and many other details. So, stopped at 2013 since that's when Hillary finally came out for gay marriage.

That said, the fact is that Bernie really hasn't done much for or against gays during his time in Congress. Even on DOMA, he argued that marriage matters should be left to the states, and made this argument at a time that states around the country were amending their constitutions to outlaw gay marriage. But, he did not succeed in defeating DOMA and has no accomplishment to his name for gay rights during his years as a Congressperson. While the Clinton's record on gays has some black marks (such as DOMA and DADT), they also did a lot for gays when anti-gay backlash was fierce.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Good timeline