aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, March 03, 2006

Hillary, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell & Same Sex Marriage

Chris Crain weighs in on the email sent by Alan Van Capelle, the head of New York State’s leading gay rights group, to his board members describing Hillary Clinton as a “disappointment” on same-sex marriage, and suggesting gays and lesbians stop giving money to her campaign. Chris says:

To date, she has perfected the minuet made famous by her husband: dance with the gays, take their money, their votes and their praise, but cut in with the next available dancer whenever the moves look too risky.

If the song is about employment protection or hate crimes or civil unions, on which there’s already overwhelming support in New York, Hillary is ready to samba. But when it comes to a wedding waltz, her dance card is full.

Clinton’s haughtiness on marriage is particularly galling given her own rocky experience with the institution. She did vote against an unprecedented amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban gays from marrying, but to do otherwise would have been unthinkable for her politically.

In her speech on the Senate floor, she said, “I believe marriage is not just a bond but a sacred bond between a man and a woman.” Another reality check: She’s known for decades that in her own case the institution was never so limited and in fact was a not-so-sacred bond between a man and several women, including his wife and untold Gennifers, Monicas and others.

I guess that’s fair, but her husband’s affairs are not the direction I’d like to take the argument. The merits of the argument stand on their own for me. I won’t be giving her money, and I believe gay leaders have the obligation to hammer her for it.

On the other hand, thinking back on those heady days right after the (first) Clinton presidential victory, when I really believed gays in the military could happen, Bill Clinton sure said the right words. And I surely do blame him for that failure. (I blame Collin Powell more and it’s a mystery to me why gays apparently give him a pass!) I base that blame in his political naivete. He played the politics wrong!

So, yes, I fall into the category of gays who accepts the “laughable” excuse:

“As she gears up to run for president, it’s a broader stage, and these issues matter in a way that perhaps they don’t when she’s in the Senate,” Jeff Soref, a prominent gay Democrat and co-chair of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force board, told the New York Blade.

The move towards liberalism is more important than any individiual issue, even as special an issue as this one is to me. Same-sex marriage is inevitbale - I’m guessing sooner than we think - and I can imagine it happening and even being facilitated by a Hillary Clinton administration.

So if she’s the candidate I will vote for her. I expect Van Capelle will too, just as he said he will in the Senate race in the opening line of his critical email:

“Let me begin by stating that I believe Hillary Clinton has served the people of New York well in the United States Senate and that she deserves re-election,” he writes. “My vote for Senator Clinton will come despite her regrettable statements on the issue of marriage for same-sex couples and her current support for DOMA.”