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Barack Obama, who handily won the presidential race Tuesday, has pledged to support a bill that would authorize federal officials to prosecute anti-gay hate crimes. The measure is expected to emerge as the first gay rights bill to come up during his term. (Photo by Paul Sancya/AP)
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR COMMENTS
 
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in early 1993, during Clinton’s first year as president, when the issue of gays in the military exploded on the national scene as a highly contentious issue.
Strong opposition by military leaders, plus congressional Dem-ocrats and Republicans forced Clinton to back down on his campaign promise to repeal the longstanding policy barring gays from serving in the military.
Instead, Clinton introduced the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which Congress enacted into law over Clinton’s objections. Although most Democrats initially favored Clinton’s proposal to allow gays to serve openly, they acknowledged that the political pressure generated by opponents made it politically impossible for them to stop the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” bandwagon.
“I blame the community as much as maybe some naiveté on the part of the brand new Clinton administration,” said lesbian activist Elizabeth Birch, a former HRC president. “We weren’t strong. We weren’t broad and deep. We were not in any way ready to take on that issue.”
Birch and other activists this week said they were confident that Obama will have learned form Clinton’s mistakes on the issue of gays in the military.
“Barack Obama has been able to really learn, as a result of the Clinton years, how to move in an efficient but strategic way,” she said.
David Mixner, the gay Democratic Party activist who is credited with generating strong gay support for Bill Clinton’s election in 1992, said he believed that Obama would be prudent and cautious in pushing for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
But Mixner said he faults Clinton for not being decisive in his original plan to lift the military ban on gays. Mixner noted that Clinton delayed introducing his plan for lifting the ban after opposition surfaced rather than acting decisively.
“Many of us, including supportive military folks, told him to do it on Inauguration Day,” Mixner said. “Just like Harry Truman did in ending the military’s segregation policies for blacks.”
Added Mixner, “Let’s be honest here. Clinton wimped out. That’s the way I see it.”
Other gay leaders, including Rep. Barney Frank, noted that Obama would enter the White House 16 years after the issue of gays in the military blew up in Congress.
They said the country is now in a different place and that polling data show a majority of the American people support allowing gays to serve in the military openly.
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