had a policy in the military that said no gays. he tried to stop that by executive order. he said, we re going to have gays in the military. and then sam nun and others had the vote in the senate and house to take that discriminatory policy and put it into law. and to prevent that, they came up with the compromise the not very good compromise, to put it mildly, of don t ask, don t tell. but he was forced into that pep tried to do the right thing there. and he issued executive ors on certain things and he appointed a gays and lee bsbians to high-profile positions. the big negative, obviously, is that he signed doma. that s hard to forget. through executive order he signed. remember, the most important two most important things on my mind on the clinton legacy on gay rights, he s the first president to say gay people had a right to be entitled to be open and be part of the political process by the appointments he made and so forth, and by seeking
mr. mr. shrum says it happened, mr. clinton s people said it didn t happen. we don t know if it really happens. it s tricky because it evokes this part of bill clinton we saw, as you saw, the triangulation of the 90s where you could find a little middle position and give a little on one side, give a little on the other side. so, we don t know if it happened. i tend to doubt it. i ve stayed in touch with president clinton ever since he left office. he tend to call me on these things and, you know, as i m sure he calls a number of other people. he doesn t just talk to one person, as we know. i would be surprised if that happened. what do you think of bill clinton legacy on gay rights overall? it s a mixed legacy. this makes it a mixed legacy. other than that he deserves credit. he s gotten a bat rap on don t ask, don t tell. people forget, he tried you
1978 was not supposed to be a good year for gay rights. in florida a high profile campaign led by anita bryant successfully overturned miami-dade county ordinance. a result that spurred gay rights opponents to think nationally. their next target became california where an initiative was placed on the ballot, brigz initiative, or proposition 6, it would ban gays from teaching in public schools and more. news reports from the time give us indication how vulnerable rights of gays were in that crucial pivotal moment as the vote on the initiative approached. unlike earlier gay rights questions in other parts of the country, it would not apply just to homosexuals. the law would empower school boards to require anyone for advocate, soliciting, promoting
scalia and rest on the court may have put the national republican party in a tough spot. they didn t eliminate the vra, just left it up to congress to update the formula for preclearance. if they do this, vra could be back online. democrats and civil rights leaders are calling for, this no surprise there, but so are some republicans. jim sensenbrenner, from wisconsin, who led the house floor fight for vra in 2006 said this week, quote, the voting rights act is vital to america s commitment to never again permit racial prejudices in the electoral process. this is going to take time and will require members from both sides of the aisle to put partisan politics aside to ensure americans most sacred right is protected. from republican top leaders, conservatives who hold sway outside congress and southerners who put up a fight in 2006, looks like they don t to want
supporters, first person running for president ever in 1992 to seek the support of the gay community. concretely he signed two executive orders. one that banned sexual orientation discrimination in the federal civilian workforce. another one that banned federal government from denying security clearances to people because they were gay. that s right. and this was this was, you know, unheard of at the time. if you think that it was a small thing, if you think it was a small thing, when he signed that executive order banning employment discrimination in the federal government, the republicans in congress tried to get tried to deny funding to its enforcement. they tried to override it. and they only missed by like 12 votes. that s right. that s true. the thing that daik i think the thing that comes back when i talk to specifically on the issue of gay rights but when i talk to people who were generally supportive of bill clinton, whatever their issue was, they say the common th