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| ‘[Hillary Clinton is] a complete disappointment and does not deserve an LGBT fundraiser,’ wrote New York gay rights activist Alan Van Capelle, in response to Clinton’s opposition to same-sex marriage rights. |
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As Democratic presidential hopefuls begin to emerge, gay voters will be looking closely at their voting records. Potential 2008 Democratic presidential candidates and some of their positions on gay issues include:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who received an 88 percent score on HRC’s 2004 scorecard, opposes full marriage equality, which caused the New York Empire State Pride Agenda president to refuse to participate in fundraising efforts for her Senate reelection campaign.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who received a 100 percent rating in 2004 from HRC, opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment but backed an anti-gay marriage amendment in his home state. He supports civil unions, he opposes full marriage. He voted against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and opposes the military’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" ban. HRC endorsed Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid.
Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), who scored a 66 percent rating on HRC’s 2004 scorecard, marked down for not sponsoring the Permanent Partners Immigration Act or adopting a nondiscrimination policy for his own offices. Edwards was Kerry’s running mate in the 2004 presidential election.
Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who received a 63 percent on HRC’s scorecard, did not sponsor the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and did not adopt a nondiscrimination policy for his own offices.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), who scored an 88 percent from HRC, missed a perfect score by not co-sponsoring federal hate crime legislation that would cover sexual orientation and gender identity.
Although not ranked by the HRC, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner opposed but not vigorously challenge the state’s Marriage Affirmation Act, which bans gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships. At the end of Warner’s term in Virginia in 2005, he made it illegal for state agencies to discriminate against workers because of their sexual orientation. He was "always open to have a conversation and dialogue about our issues," said Equality Virginia’s executive director, Dyana Mason.
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG COMMENTS
 
As the gay rights movement has gained momentum in recent years, expectations for those Democrats who are running or considering a White House run have evolved quickly.
In 1992, Bill Clinton made history by specifically reaching out to gays, relying on longtime friend and gay activist David Mixner to introduce the candidate to a segment of voters that hadn’t been directly courted before.
In the general election that year, President George H.W. Bush sparred over the issue of gays in the military. Clinton pledged to allow gays to serve openly, while Bush said he supported the ban.
The issue was little more than a blip in the campaign but became a political nightmare for Clinton once in office. Under pressure from members of Congress from both parties and from Pentagon brass including Gen. Colin Powell, Clinton backed down from his campaign promise. Instead, he agreed to the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" compromise, under which gays can serve but not openly.
Clinton cruised to an easy re-election victory in 1996 over GOP nominee Bob Dole but gay voter turnout decreased dramatically that year, according to Blade reports from the time.
Some speculated it was because Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act and then touted his support for the measure on Christian radio stations. DOMA, a federal law, bans federal recognition of gay marriages and allows one state to ignore marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples by another state.
When Democrats again fought a contested primary in 2000, the debate shifted from the military to civil unions, employment nondiscrimination and a federal hate crime law, according to John Marble, communications director for the National Stonewall Democrats, a gay partisan group.
"A lot of pro-gay candidates had relationships with the LGBT community in 2000 and 2002," said Marble. "We felt like civil unions were the gold standard they could reach for. We look back and say [civil unions] are a nice stop over."
Both Vice President Al Gore and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley backed civil unions and repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" during the 2000 primary, even though civil unions were still "a radical concept," according to Marble.
The Human Rights Campaign endorsed Gore in both the primary and general election that year.
Just four years later, support for civil unions was no longer enough in the eyes of many gay rights advocates, who demanded full marriage equality in 2004 after same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts.
Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, had signed that state’s historic civil union law and received an outpouring of money and support from gays that propelled him to early frontrunner status. But Dean opposed gay marriage, as did the rest of the Democratic field, with the exception of three long-shot candidates: former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the eventual Democratic nominee, supported civil unions and opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment, pushed by President Bush, which would have banned states from marrying gay couples. The FMA was defeated in both the House and Senate.
Kerry raised the ire of some gay Democrats, however, when he went on record supporting an amendment to the constitution of his home state that bans gay marriage. Massachusetts was and is the only one in the country that marries gay couples.
He has since criticized the Massachusetts Democratic Party for backing gay marriage in its platform, something the state parties in California, New York and Oregon have done as well.
Gay rights also figured prominently in the 2004 presidential debates, when Kerry mentioned that Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter is a lesbian in response to a question asking if homosexuality is a choice.
Now, as gay rights advocates look ahead to the 2008 presidential election, marriage promises to figure prominently again, along with positions on state marriage amendments and leadership on gay rights.
As gays have become more socially accepted, the expectations for Democratic candidates courting gay voters have risen. That point was driven home last month when a prominent New York gay activist announced in a memo leaked to the media that he would not raise money for the re-election bid of the state’s junior U.S. senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, because of her opposition to full marriage equality.
"My vote for Sen. Clinton will come despite her regrettable statements on the issue of marriage for same-sex couples ...
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