Rachel Maddow: 'There Is a Difference' Between Sanders, Clinton on LGBT Rights

[portlander23]

Rachel Maddow: 'There Is a Difference' Between Sanders, Clinton on LGBT Rights
LUCAS GRINDLEY
The Advocate

"There is a difference now, I have to say, between presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton," said Maddow into the camera, having interviewed Clinton on Friday.

Clinton had told Maddow on Friday that her husband signed DOMA — which banned same-sex marriage recognition by the federal government — as a "defensive action" meant to stave off momentum for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Since then, Sanders used a major speech in Iowa to call that "trying to rewrite history." And activists including David Mixner, Michelangelo Signorile and Hilary Rosen publicly disputed the notion that DOMA was a stop-gap against a constitutional amendment. In fact, DOMA is remembered more often as a political calculation meant to bolster President Clinton's reelection chances. The signing was even touted in ads by President Clinton at the time.

"It bothered me to hear Secretary Clinton saying, 'Well, you know, what DOMA was really about was to prevent something even worse,'" Sanders told Maddow on Monday. "That just wasn't true."

In Monday's interview, Sanders explained why it's important to get the history right, saying, "We live in a tough world and leadership counts." As one of only 67 people in the House to vote against DOMA, Sanders said, "It is important to stand up when the going is tough."

"You can argue that… 'I don't agree with DOMA politically but I have to do it,' but you can't say that DOMA was passed in order to prevent something worse," he said. "That is just not the case."

The Clinton campaign on Monday issued a statement about the controversy to the Huffington Post and tried moving conversation forward without backtracking on anything Clinton has said.

"Whatever the context that led to the passage of DOMA nearly two decades ago, Hillary Clinton believes the law was discriminatory and both she and President Clinton urged that it be overturned," spokesman Brian Fallon told the Huffington Post, in an article that reviews the history and sides largely with the Sanders recollection. "As President, Hillary Clinton will continue to fight to secure full and equal rights for LGBT Americans who, despite all our progress, can still get married on a Saturday and fired on a Monday just because of who they are and who they love."

"Whatever the context that led to the passage of DOMA nearly two decades ago"

Not quite an apology, but you can never tell where Mrs. Clinton will be tomorrow.



Related:

Clinton’s claim that DOMA had to be enacted to stop an anti-gay marriage amendment

Thom Hartmann: Clinton lied to Rachel Maddow on DOMA and played "poor me victim" on "shouting"

Steve Kornacki: Why Bill Clinton really signed DOMA

The Advocate: Bernie Sanders Doesn't Share Hillary Clinton's Memory of How DOMA Passed

The Advocate: President Hillary Clinton would compromise on civil rights if necessary

"Some are trying to rewrite history" on Defense of Marriage Act

Clinton: ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ and DOMA Were ‘Defensive Actions’ To Stop Anti-LGBT Conservatives

[Scuba]

1. Yet some wonder why others don't trust Hillary.

[Betty Karlson]

2. She's a follower, not a leader.

That's how she lost my trust. Not that she cares.

[Agschmid]

3. Yet Bernie failed to lead here...

"It just wasn't time"...

All our candidates leave something to be desired, IMO.

[Betty Karlson]

5. His words were still better than: "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman." n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Fallon is not good at his job. He has opened a can of worms most have forgotten entirely

Like Bernie, I keep harping about the accurate history of the times. Fallon says :
"LGBT Americans who, despite all our progress, can still get married on a Saturday and fired on a Monday just because of who they are and who they love."

That is true, it is also unacceptable. It is also a fact that passage of ENDA was supposed to be part of the DOMA deal but ENDA failed to pass by one single vote in 1996.
What he is saying digs their hole deeper.
http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1247&context=hlelj