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Related: About this forum32 years Before Marriage Equality Bernie Sanders Fought For Gay Rights
But these are only very recent developments. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may be champions of same-sex marriage now, but you dont have to go far back to find a time when they werent. And hey, were happy to have their evolved support.
snip---
Not only did Sanders vote against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 which defined marriage as between one man and one woman, signed into law by then-president Bill Clinton an unpopular position then a look back at Sanders political career shows consistent support of the gay rights movement. Even when it was more than just unpopular, it was downright controversial.
snip---
But Sanders was unfazed. The following year he signed a resolution recommending that all levels of government support gay rights, and the year after that in 1985 (the same year then-president Reagan finally said the word AIDS in public), he wrote:
It is my very strong view that a society which proclaims human freedom as its goal, as the United States does, must work unceasingly to end discrimination against all people. I am happy to say that this past year, in Burlington, we have made some important progress by adopting an ordinance which prohibits discrimination in housing. This law will give legal protection not only to welfare recipients, and families with children, the elderly and the handicapped but to the gay community as well.
http://www.queerty.com/32-years-before-marriage-equality-bernie-sanders-fought-for-gay-rights-20150719
snip---
Not only did Sanders vote against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 which defined marriage as between one man and one woman, signed into law by then-president Bill Clinton an unpopular position then a look back at Sanders political career shows consistent support of the gay rights movement. Even when it was more than just unpopular, it was downright controversial.
snip---
But Sanders was unfazed. The following year he signed a resolution recommending that all levels of government support gay rights, and the year after that in 1985 (the same year then-president Reagan finally said the word AIDS in public), he wrote:
It is my very strong view that a society which proclaims human freedom as its goal, as the United States does, must work unceasingly to end discrimination against all people. I am happy to say that this past year, in Burlington, we have made some important progress by adopting an ordinance which prohibits discrimination in housing. This law will give legal protection not only to welfare recipients, and families with children, the elderly and the handicapped but to the gay community as well.
http://www.queerty.com/32-years-before-marriage-equality-bernie-sanders-fought-for-gay-rights-20150719
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32 years Before Marriage Equality Bernie Sanders Fought For Gay Rights (Original Post)
Zorra
Jul 2015
OP
Sorry, irrelevant. Too long ago. Besides, I don't know which of those people is Bernie.
merrily
Jul 2015
#1
merrily
(45,251 posts)1. Sorry, irrelevant. Too long ago. Besides, I don't know which of those people is Bernie.
j/k of course. See my sig line.
Bernie has had a consistent pattern of having been on the correct side of history.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)2. you forgot to mention his hair!
merrily
(45,251 posts)3. True! My bad. And, it's my favorite topic for an OP in the Bernie Group, too!
Zorra
(27,670 posts)4. I see. You are a single issue voter.
merrily
(45,251 posts)5. Yes, as soon as I saw the haircut and the smoothed do, I switched my support to Chafee.
DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)6. The best candidate for LGBTQ rights.
I don't even think it's a matter of historical record, I trust Bernie to be a better of supporter of things like the Equality Act right now. Too many other Democrats want to bargain away our rights by leaving out trans people or using "religious liberty" to gut the bill.
dsc
(52,166 posts)7. I have no problem with this thread so far
but we will not become GDP gay version. Anyone who posts anything at all negative about any candidate in here will be booted period.
merrily
(45,251 posts)8. I take it my post about losing interest in Sanders after his hair changed doesn't count.