Hillary Clinton, speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28, declared that it’s time to elect “a president who will do for gay couples what my husband did for his,” drawing chants of “Bill! Bill! Bill!”
When the former secretary of state took the stage to deliver a prime-time keynote speech on night one of the Democratic National Convention, she immediately evoked the name of her husband Bill.
“I loved being married to Bill Clinton. I love President Clinton,” she told the crowd at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. “We have worked together and cared for one another for so long. We owe him our gratitude and our respect.”
Hillary Clinton is the first major party nominee to ever call herself married to a former president in an acceptance speech at a national convention. This was no ordinary speech; she had just announced that she was supporting her former primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders.
As part of her speech, she thanked her husband, and made sure the crowd knew how much of a hit that announcement was. “He also did the work of generations to secure equal rights for our LGBT brothers and sisters.”
Not only did she take time out of her speech to honor her husband, she had two women wear dresses that said “Love is Human, Made in America” — a nod to the “Love is Love” campaign. These women, who also supported Sanders, then joined the former Secretary of State on stage with both of them holding large photographs of Hillary and her husband.
The choice to highlight President Bill Clinton’s role as first spouse (including their work on LGBT rights) came on the night that the first same-sex couple married on national television.
Hillary Clinton’s speech came just days after President Obama became the first sitting president to come out in favor of same-sex marriage.
It’s no wonder that Mrs. Clinton chose to acknowledge her husband’s record on gay rights.
Last week, I met @HillaryClinton to talk about the #Out4Obama campaign. In our conversation, she shared how @billclinton’s work as first Spouse on @HRC and the Defense of Marriage Act led to that moment in 2013. pic.twitter.com/p4JiT7yA8K — Evan Wolfson (@evanwolfson) July 29, 2016
“I’ve had my share of criticism for talking about President Clinton so much today,” Hillary told the crowd on the convention floor. “No, no, no, no. The most important woman in my life is Michelle Obama — and we want to talk about what she’s done for America’s families.”
The Clintons’ influence over the LGBT movement also inspired the other speakers to speak of their own families during their respective convention speeches. “Barack and I were born just a few years apart, but there was a big gap between where we were born and where we’ve ended up in life,” Cokie Roberts said on stage before Hillary Clinton took the stage. “My parents were married when I was born, but my mom wasn’t in the same room for my birth and some of the other kids in the nursery. My mother worked at the same factory as my dad, but he was never there, either. My mom was left at home with me and my younger brother. She’d wake us up early in the morning, and she’d pick us up after school. She raised us on her own because she was a single mom.”
“If anyone ever doubted the extent to which President Clinton made the difference, then he’s sitting right here.” —Hillary Clinton
Erin Andrews, a woman whose career in broadcasting began as a correspondent for the Outdoor Channel, said that he’s been with her “every step of the way,” from getting her start to helping out with the launch of her career in the WWE.
Lisa Niemi, the first woman to be named executive director of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and a lesbian who served on a panel on the role of LGBT communities in the Democratic Party, talked about how Bill Clinton “paved the way” for her career.
During the panel “Beyond 2016,” moderator and former Clinton press secretary Dana Bash asked how Mrs. Clinton would handle being challenged by a gay man if she’s elected president. Hillary Clinton smiled and said:
Well, I have seen more than a few women over the course of my life who could beat the living daylights out of me. I don’t know what the men are going to be like and I am deeply skeptical of anyone who claims they know what the men in America are going to do. I know men like my husband, Bill, who would be excellent presidents and I know men who are not up to the job, and I don’t think any woman should be in a fright about that.
“Bill and I have had enough ugly political attacks and negativity to last a lifetime,” she continued. “But one thing I can promise you is the attacks will not deter me from doing the work I know needs to be done. Just like Barack has been motivated by people who believed they had no voice, so will I.”
“President Clinton led this country through the end of the AIDS epidemic. He ensured that people with pre-existing conditions could get health insurance and coverage for their kids,” she said of the work he did during his presidency. “He fought for stronger gun laws and a fairer criminal justice system, and he signed the Violence Against Women Act. And let’s not forget that he did it all knowing that he was going to get killed for it. And then he went on to pass the Brady Bill, which we are still passing out, doing our bit to make sure gun violence doesn’t touch other families.”
“No man can know how hard that is to watch one of our sons or daughters, to feel so helpless and hopeless that he’s going to be taken from us. But President Clinton’s legacy is important not only because of what he did, but because of what he inspired other men to do. When Bill Clinton entered the White House, he did not fill the gap left by a woman in American politics. Instead, he shattered it and became the first president in our history to end a war, pass a crime bill, restore civil rights, make a difference in education, and take care of AIDS. He left a more perfect union than the one he was handed, and his example has become our north star.”
Gavin Newsom is the governor of California, and his time in the Golden State has seen numerous gains in LGBT rights. Among those who endorsed Hillary during the campaign, Gavin is also among the highest-profile LGBT elected officials. He endorsed her primary opponent and went on to win a delegate spot at the state convention to choose the nominee. His name is regularly bandied about as a potential VP pick for Hillary Clinton.
“Gavin Newsom understands the importance of both marriage equality and our work to pass an anti-discrimination bill,” Hillary Clinton said in California. “It would be great to have a governor who recognizes this as a priority for all of us. If we want to keep California the world leader in technology, in technology, in technology, we all have to continue to make sure our LGBT brothers and sisters are protected from discrimination. And that’s what Gavin is all about.”
Speaking of marriage equality, she said, “There are still six states with constitutional amendments banning marriage equality. It’s not about marriage, it’s about equality. We have to keep pushing.”
In California, some in the LGBT community hope to see a statewide referendum on the issue. “I just hope they don’t want to hold this until the day of the election,” Gavin said, referring to how Prop 8 happened. “Then we’re going to have a marriage license, we’re going to have the right people get married, we’re going to get married ourselves. We will never, ever live in a day of gay marriage, where we need to get permission from anybody.”
Of course, the Democratic Party platform has always been for equality, which has also led Mrs. Clinton to take a stand on an issue where President Obama has remained silent: the Trans Military Service Act.
“There has been a lot of buzz about a federal statute that would allow transgender people to serve in the military,” she told the crowd at the convention. “There have been a lot of people who have raised questions about this, but the simple fact is this: if you are a transgender individual and you meet the standards to join the United States military, then you should be able to.”
“One of the things I’m most proud of from the last few years is how the president and I worked together to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ He wanted to move fast, so we did. But as I said to you in Iowa, if we had moved fast on that, we could have stopped the epidemic of suicides in the military when it was happening every day. And we wouldn’t have had the first five service members, who came out publicly this week under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ come out dead — so that we’re going to have to wait for five more service members to die before we recognize that that law was flawed from the start. I have a pretty simple view on that. If you can fight for your country and you can do it within the military, then you should be able to do
