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Blue Dogs do not
support gays thus Blue Dogs do not support Clinton. |
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WASHINGTON
(By
Devlin Barrett, Associated
Press) March 6, 2007 — Democrat Hillary
Rodham Clinton told the nation's leading
gay rights group in an unpublicized
speech that she wants a partnership with
gays if elected president.
Clinton also said she opposes the "don't
ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays
in the military that was instituted
during her husband's presidency.
"I am proud to stand by your side,"
Clinton said in a keynote speech Friday
to the Human Rights Campaign.
Neither Clinton's campaign nor her
Senate office made any announcement that
she would be making the Friday address.
Asked twice at a Monday campaign stop in
Iowa why she did not publicize her
speech to the group, Clinton said:
"You'll have to ask my campaign."
In the speech, Clinton joked that she
shares the same initials as the group,
and pledged to maintain the same close
working relationship that last year
helped defeat the federal amendment
which would have banned same-sex
marriage.
"I want you to know that this is exactly
the kind of partnership we will have
when I am president," Clinton told the
group.
"I want you to know that just as you
always have an open door to my Senate
office, you will always have an open
door to the White House and together we
can continue this journey."
Clinton's husband Bill Clinton was
president when the Pentagon instituted
the "don't ask, don't tell" policy,
which says gays may serve in the
military only if they keep their sexual
orientation private. In 1999, as she
prepared to run for the Senate from New
York, Clinton opposed that policy.
Previous to Bill Clinton's
administration, gays were flatly
forbidden from serving in the military.