Former President Makes Surprise Appearance At Gay Event

[William769]

(Miami, Florida) Former President Bill Clinton made a surprise appearance at a benefit on the weekend for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Clinton was in South Florida to campaign for Democratic candidates. An aide called the NGLTF about an hour before to say that Clinton would like to attend.

The former president mingled with the 650 people who attended the dinner and stayed to see old friend NAACP Chair Julian Bond receive an NGLTF leadership award. Bond has been a longtime supporter of LGBT issues.

Last week Bond told a forum at the University of Virginia where he is a professor that the state's proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage is nothing less than discrimination and no different from racism. (story)

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/11/110606clinton.htm

[Olney Blue]

1. Great story!

[LeftCoast]

2. I've been able to see Clinton speak in person twice now

It's a really great experience. I would love to have been able to 'mingle' though. The times I saw him he was on stage.

[William769]

3. I saw him once from a distance in D.C. during the 1993 march on Washington.

That was a very special memory for me. Also my Mother took me to a private dinner party in S.W. Florida this year that Hillary Clinton attended. That was also a treat (although I don't always see eye to eye with her, I respect her).

[davidinalameda]

4. you call it mingle

some of us call it something else (tramp)

;)

:rofl:

[mitchtv]

6. Bwa hahahaha

Gropenator ll

[davidinalameda]

7. hehehe

I love LC-almost as much as I love Ronny

:rofl:

[LeftCoast]

9. Awww...ok I forgive you!

:hug:

[ronnykmarshall]

14. Oh YOU!!

:loveya:

[LeftCoast]

8. Hmmm

I thought I liked you!

:P

[Lithos]

5. Never met the guy

However, it is extra cool that he also came to celebrate a friend's well deserved award.

L-

[cboy4]

10. Hopefully Clinton took some notes from Mr. Bond.

The last time I checked, it was Clinton who signed DOMA and DADT....two of the most devastating laws in our civil rights history.

[xchrom]

11. me and my jaundiced eye.

doma and dadt -- he'll have to attend a few more galas i guess for me.

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. He should have been booed off the stage

He's the jackass who signed the "Defense" of Marriage Act just before the 1996 elections, then told the gay community we had to vote for him because "he was our friend."

The fucking liar.

[Vorta]

13. I see that quite differently

There are political realities and our friends can't help us if they aren't in office. Signing DOMA obviously hasn't slowed the efforts of the GOP, so even the GOP seems to expect it to be overturned in the court. As president, signing a bad law that you don't expect to survive a court battle is a case of choosing your battles. If he hadn't signed the bill, it could have repercussions carrrying forward to this election and 2008.

I'm all for gay marriage, but an all-or-nothing-now-or-never approach carries the risk of nothing and never.

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. I he were our friend, he would have vetoed that abomination

Stop making excuses for his bigotry. He never, not once, apologized for making gay people into second class citizens.

[Big Sky Boy]

16. DOMA was a disaster

It was SUPPOSED to be a compromise to keep the Federal Marriage Amendment off the legislative agenda.

What it ended up doing was sending a hornets nest of conservative crackpots back to their districts to drum up support for several dozen state DOMA laws because the Federal law didn't go far enough.

Then a whole bunch of supposedly christian conservatives used it as an excuse to amend a few dozen state constitutions -- because they knew the state DOMA laws would be declared unconstitutional.

The only way to reverse those laws now is to challenge one and/or the Federal DOMA law in Federal court and win at the Supreme Court level.

I believe that may happen... a few generations from now.

If Clinton had stood his ground and worked to keep both DOMA and FMA off the agenda, we would be far better off today. But that would have required the threat of a presidential veto and we were not that important to him--never were.

He already caved on Don't Ask Don't Tell, so the Republicans knew he wouldn't go to bat on this one. And based on the number of Democrats who voted for DOMA, any veto would almost certainly have been overridden--because a lot of conservative Democrats don't like gay people either.

[TechBear_Seattle]

17. And with friends like this.... n/t