In the beginning of 2000, aides inside President Bill Clinton’s White House faced a dilemma.
The residents of California, US are against the proposal of marriages between same-sex couples and regarding this, Clinton had faced the situation where he had to give an explanation to his voters.
In 1996, Clinton had signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the law that stated the federal government would not recognize the marriages of same-sex couples as valid.
Proposition 22- which mean marriage between same sexes is opposed. The law has come into existence in March 2000.
On March 7, 2000, California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 22, by a margin of 61%-39%.
But, Eddie Correia, the then president’s special counsel, objected, saying that, “I now conclude that I was wrong about same-sex marriage,” Correia wrote, in a draft statement meant to be delivered by Clinton. “I continue to believe that the people of California should be able to decide what marriages they will recognize. But I hope they will choose to recognize the validity of marriage between people of the same gender if the marriage is legal where it occurred. Consequently, I am opposed to Proposition 22.”
Eddie faced the opposition from Eric Liu, the president’s deputy domestic policy adviser, who wrote in response, “Well, let’s not go there yet, and let’s certainly not start there.”
Now, i.e., in 2015, Eric Liu regrets his quick dismissal of the idea that, President Clinton could admit he was wrong about marriage equality in 2000.
“There’s a poignant regret that I have about that - that my mindset was, ‘Let’s not reopen the DOMA can of worms. Let’s figure out a way to be opposed to this without doing that,’” Liu told BuzzFeed News this week. “It’s hard to rewind and ask, but the ‘what if’ question is, ‘What if we had actually had a critical mass of people within the White House who really wanted to reopen that question?”
After several years of discussion among the officials in the above manner, Clinton had finally announced in May 2011 that, he is ready to support the right of marriage of same sex couples.
“Our nation’s permanent mission is to form a ‘more perfect union’ - deepening the meaning of freedom, broadening the reach of opportunity, strengthening the bonds of community,” Clinton said in a statement released by the Human Rights Campaign. “That mission has inspired and empowered us to extend rights to people previously denied them. Every time we have done that, it has strengthened our nation. Now we should do it again, in New York, with marriage equality.”
However, realizing the importance of human rights is the minimum thing that a government should do, in that aspect, the US government deserves a loud applause.
By Phani
