What are people who were gay activists and/or involved with the White House saying?
“In 1996, I was President of the Human Rights Campaign, and there was no threat of a Federal Marriage Amendment”
She goes on to point out there was no federal case making its way through the courts. There was only the Hawaii case based on the state constitution. She adds that the federal amendment idea did not become an issue until 2004 when Bush ran on it.
Elizabeth Birch, head of the HRC / Clinton ally
http://americablog.com/...
Note that this was a central factor in Rove's strategy to beat Kerry with the evangelical turnout in 2004. Had by that point Bill Clinton felt any regret? Around this same time, those surrounding the Kerry administration indicated that Bill Clinton had advocated to Kerry that he come out and endorse the Ohio anti-marriage equality amendment.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/...
Bob Shrum related the above accounts regarding Bill Clinton. The above article indicates he refused to retract the claim that Bill Clinton had sought to further discriminate against gay people.
Former White House officials in the Clinton Administration also say DOMA was politically motivated.
“Paul Yandura, who worked in the White House gay and lesbian liaison’s office at the time, puts Clinton’s decision to support DOMA in stark terms.
”He could have said, ‘Look, I’m just going to veto this.’ If you look at the polling around that time, he was way ahead in the polls. And so, could he have taken a five-point dip? Sure. Were we worth it? I guess they decided that we weren’t.”
Yandura sees the decision as a political one. That view is shared by Richard Socarides, the Labor Department’s White House liaison when DOMA was introduced in the House in May 1996, but became the White House liaison to the gay and lesbian community in the midst of the debate over DOMA.”
http://www.metroweekly.com/...
Has Hillary Clinton shown any regret about her husband's decision?
Bill Clinton, her husband, stated by the late 90s that Clinton was a little put off by gays.
http://www.advocate.com/...
Despite all of this, has she been a stronger advocate since the 90s?
The bag is mixed. There are her speeches and support of thing like fighting the federal marriage amendment, but when the GOP is at issue and public perception, there are stories about her like this one:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Clinton was angry about how GOP perception may be affected regarding changing father/mother on passports to parents as was sought by gay rights advocates.
Has she shown signs of regretting Bill Clinton's decision on DOMA?
Here's her reaction to Terry Gross asking her questions about it:
http://theweek.com/...
The terse interaction treated Gross like the enemy rather than simply being an opportunity to address the concern.
Finally, LGBT activists have once again over the weekend and today stated the Former Sec. Clinton's claims are not what was occurring time.
Gay r have always had to fight for our equality. This will not change under Sanders or Clinton. Changing history is not something that provides any value to our movement. The point of these sorts of "defense" arguments is that she wants to be perceived of as an advocate. The best thing she can do is to admit DOMA was a mistake and move on. If her own gay supports can see that, I am not sure why some here and in her campaign cannot.