Hillary Clinton tried to BLOCK gay-inclusive passports, emails reveal
Hillary Clinton attempted to block Obama reforms to children’s passports, threatening to kill plans to replace ‘mother and father’ fields with ‘parent one and parent two’.
The former Secretary of State has been compelled to release thousands of emails that were sent via her private email server after a security scandal.
One of the messages released this week shows that while serving as President Obama’s Secretary of State in 2011, Clinton fumed at a decision to allow gay-friendly children’s passports.
A story at the time suggested that the traditional ‘mother’ and ‘father’ categories would be adapted to cater for same-sex parents, but an email shows she ranted at her staff – and even said she would refuse to stand up for the decision in congress.
Clinton, who is currently running for President, wrote in an email to staffers: “Who made the decision that State will not use the terms ‘mother and father’ and instead substitute ‘parent one and two’?
“I’m not defending that decision, which I disagree w and knew nothing about, in front of this Congress.
“I could live w letting people in nontraditional families choose another descriptor so long as we retained the presumption of mother and father.”
Referencing anti-gay Republican Sarah Palin, she added: “We need to address this today or we will be facing a huge Fox-generated media storm led by Palin et al.”
The news is likely to be hugely damaging to her reputation with the LGBT community, by showing that she actively attempted to block LGBT reforms during Obama’s first term in office.
Clinton was on-record opposing same-sex marriage in 2004, but until now conventional wisdom suggested that she was a supporter of LGBT equality by the time she was appointed by Obama in 2008.
It will not be welcome news to her campaign – with polling already indicating she has slipped into second place among gay voters, behind left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders.
The former First Lady confirmed her support for equal marriage back in 2013 – and has consistently shown her support for LGBT issues since.
She was endorsed before she even declared her candidacy by pro-LGBT group Equality California – more than a year before the polls open in November 2016.
She insisted last month: “I was not raised to even imagine this, and I’m thrilled now that it is the law of the land – I have a lot of good friends who are now able to be married because of the changes we’ve made legally and constitutionally.”
