March 06, 2007

Devil in the Details

A conservative writer claims Hillary voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA). Unfortunately, that turns out to be false. She did vote against invoking cloture on the FMA.

Actually, if you read the article closely, after claiming Hillary voted for the FMA, it discusses how the HRC stated that Hillary worked closely with them on how to defeat it. The purpose of the article, too, is to point how, while offering a moderate face on gay issues Hillary is actually very pro-gay. So, the article has the dual effect of annoying ‘liberals’ (She voted for the FMA!) and annoying conservatives (She’s secretly in the pocket of those gays!).

Conservatives, especially conservative gays, love to point out when Democrats fail to support any ‘pro-gay’ stance, and then chastise the ‘liberal’ gays who (apparently) blindly continue to support them (they did this to Kerry as well).

The thinking is, apparently, that since both Hillary and Strom Thurman both supported the Defense of Marriage Act (Hillary was first lady, and thus didn’t vote for it), then they are equally anti-gay. Which may sound reasonable if you focus in on only this issue, but is laughable if you look at their stances overall.

Is Hillary the most pro-gay Democrat? Almost certainly not. Is she more pro-gay than 90% of the GOP. Certainly.

I’m all for holding her to task for her stance against Gay marriage, but in doing so, we need to keep in mind that she has a decent pro-gay record and has been consistent in her stance of supporting civil unions, gay adoption, hate crimes legislation, and other gay issues. And, as far as I can tell, she has always been against Don’t ask Don’t tell, supporting gay’s right to be in the military.

Update:

For the record, while my post sprung up from Michael’s (Gay orbit) original post, my discussion about conservatives here is not meant to be directed at him. It’s directed primarily at the writer of the linked article (and, indirectly, folks like Gay Patriot, ect).

Hat Tip: Gay Orbit
Comments:

Michael Demmons said (at March 6, 2007 11:32 AM):

Just as an FYI, I updated my post with an apology. I did confuse the issue, and I did not just assume Human Events was right. I actually know Hillary didn't vote on the FMA, but made an unfortunate error, which I have corrected.

For the record, I like the chick. I just have issues with her on a few things. :-)

Posted by Henry at 09:59 AM || Link to me || More Thoughts (1) || Track this post (0) || Category:: Republicans, JustLeft on