I’m a staunch democrat who will probably never vote for a republican but Bill Clinton must never be remembered as a great president for these reasons. He did a great job keeping unemployment low, handling the economy, creating jobs, and producing the largest surplus ever. However, his record on advancing equal rights for gays and lesbians was abysmal, even worse than anything George Bush attempted and failed to do.
First of all, Bill Clinton failed miserably in his weak attempt to overturn the military’s stupid, discriminatory ban on gays and lesbians. His compromise, the "don’t ask don’t tell" policy which he now admits is out of whack, has hurt the military in several ways in these most crucial times of war. Over 12,000 brave and fully capable soldiers have been discharged to the delight of prejudiced republicans who care more about discrimination and bigotry than actually winning a war. The simple reason is that gays prefer not to stick their dicks in a woman’s vagina. Some of these soldiers discharged have included nuclear scientists and Arabic linguists, which the military needs so badly. This failed policy has caused straight soldiers to serve longer terms, thereby risking their lives more than necessary. It has also hurt their morale knowing that people, especially republicans and conservatives, have no confidence in their ability to serve effectively with their openly gay comrades. All this despite the fact that 24 countries with weaker armies allow gays to serve openly and not one of these countries has ever had to revert to their old policies of banning reinstating a ban on gays.
My other major problem with Bill Clinton was his "Defense of Marriage Act", which discriminates against gays and lesbians by denying them equal marriage rights and protections. It is also in direct opposition to the U.S. Constitution, whose equal rights clause guarantees the same rights and protections for all U.S. Citizens, gays included. This was all done to placate a bunch of ignorant, prejudiced republicans in congress who wanted to bash gays and lesbians to make themselves feel superior and manlier since blacks were no longer the whipping post. But what really infuriates me that while Bill Clinton was signing this hateful legislation to protect so called "traditional marriage values", he had no problem making a complete mockery of his own marriage by getting blowjobs in the oval office with his Monica Lewinsky. He also had extramarital affairs with other women (Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, etc.) Do you think this is someone who really cares about traditional marriage values? What a joke! To discriminate against hard working tax-paying gay and lesbian citizens wanting to enter into monogamous, committed relationships with the same rights and protections as everyone else guaranteed to them by the constitution. This has caused incredible pain and suffering within the gay community for same sex couples who are fighting for equality for their families instead of living with the rights and protections that everyone else takes for granted
Another thing Bill Clinton could have done but didn’t have the leadership ability to do was sign the Mathew Shepard Act which would have expanded the current federal hate- crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. (in other words: gays, lesbians, and trans-gendered people would be protected like blacks are protected by race, jews by religion, latinos by ethnicity, etc.
He also could have tried for the employment non-discrimination act (ENDA) that would have added protection for gays and lesbians against being fired simply for being gay. This is really an embarrassment when you think about it. The fact that incredibly, only 13 states have employment discrimination protection against gays. In simple terms, in these states a person cannot be fired from his or her job simply because of his or her sexual orientation. Don’t ask me why the pledge of allegiance says "with liberty and justice for all" because that’s a lie. Do you know what? Now that I think about it, Bill Clinton never did a damn thing to advance gay rights. He did some good things for blacks (a much larger voting bloc than gays (13% compared with about 5%) by improving race relations and lowering the unemployment rate among African Americans from 13.2% to 7.3%. Unfortunately this type of quality leadership was completely absent for the gay population. In fact, as Melissa Etheridge stated so accurately at the Human Rights Campaign presidential forum earlier this year, he said there was a place for us in society and then "threw us under the bus". I guess he couldn’t do everything. It’s tough when you’re busy getting blow jobs and shooting your load on a women’s dresses in the oval office dress instead of trying to improve the lives of our gay brothers and sisters.