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
constitutional amendment that 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 publicly
opposed that policy.
Previous to Bill
Clinton's administration, gays were flatly forbidden
from serving in the military.
Senator Clinton
said it would be safer for the nation if openly gay
soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen could wear the
uniform. ''This policy doesn't just hurt gays and
lesbians, it hurts all our troops, and this to me is a
matter of national security and we're going to fix it,''
Clinton said.
Her chief rivals
for the Democratic nomination, John Edwards and Barack
Obama, also favor repealing the policy.
She also
criticized the Bush administration for making political
appeals based on gay rights issues, vowing that her
presidency would mark ''the end of leadership that has
politicized the most personal and intimate issues.''
Human Rights
Campaign vice president David Smith said Clinton's comments
were ''very well received,'' though he added the group is
not endorsing any candidate and does not anticipate
making an endorsement ''any time soon.''
Clinton spokesman
Blake Zeff said Tuesday the candidate ''affirmed her
desire to have a strong partnership with the community as
president,'' adding they were ''delighted'' the speech
was available on the Internet.
Clinton aides
said no announcement was made because the group's gathering
is traditionally closed to the press. Video of the speech
was posted on the group's Web site.
Smith said such
annual board meetings have always been closed to the
press but that it was the first time he could remember that
a speech at such a meeting had been made public
afterward. ''There's no contradiction,'' he said.
''The event is always closed to the press, and we
wanted to make [the remarks] available for people to see.''
Clinton spent
Monday in Iowa, telling workers energy independence is
critical to the country's future and similar to the U.S.
fight against communism during the Cold War.
"Today, we know
that we have to move away from our dependence on
foreign oil. Everyone says that,'' she said. ''Our problem
is figuring out how we would actually do it.'' (Devlin
Barrett, AP)
