The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was founded in 1985 to promote the image of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the media.
On Saturday night, former President Bill Clinton was the guest of honor at its 24th Annual Media Awards in Los Angeles. He probably felt prouder receiving his GLAAD award for being an advocate for change than President Obama felt receiving his Nobel Prize for being an advocate for peace.
Except that Clinton is even more undeserving of his award than Obama was of his.
Obama was undeserving because:
There’s no denying that the Nobel Committee awarded Obama its 2009 Nobel Peace Prize today (just 9 months into his presidency) not for what he has done, but for who he is.
(“Obama Awarded – Affirmative Action – Nobel Peace Prize,” The iPINIONS Journal, October 10, 2009)
Clinton was undeserving because:
It’s a matter of public record that Clinton signed ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ (DADT) into law in 1993 as a Machiavellian compromise to ingratiate himself with the homophobic top brass of the military who, otherwise, regarded him as little more than an insolent, draft-dodging and unreformed hippie. [DADT barred openly gay and lesbian soldiers from serving in the military.]
(“Discriminating Against Gays in Military Is Not Only Immoral; It’s Self-Defeating,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 18, 2007)
And:
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) holds that states that ban same-sex marriages are not obligated to recognize such marriages even if entered into in states where they are legal, which clearly violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution…
This Act is so patently unconstitutional that former President Bill Clinton, who signed it into law in 1996 (for craven political reasons), has been in the vanguard of those calling for its repeal.
(“Supreme Court to Rule on Same-Sex Marriage,” The iPINIONS Journal, December 10, 2012)
In other words, by signing DADT and DOMA into law, Clinton did more than any other president in U.S. history to codify discrimination against gays and lesbians. Which clearly begs the question: why, then, would the nation’s most respected and influential gay civil rights group be honoring him?
In fact, nothing betrays how solicitous GLAAD was to honor Clinton (just because of who he is) quite like this being the very first time it has presented the “Advocate for Change Award.”
Imagine how fawning, sad, and pathetic it would’ve been if the NCAAP created a special award just to honor former Alabama Governor George Wallace. For even though he famously disavowed his racist politics when it became politically expedient to do so, Wallace did more than any other governor in U.S. history to defend the segregationist policies of the Jim-Crow South….
Mind you, I’m all for repentance and redemption. For example, where Blacks are concerned, I think Clinton made a persuasive case for both: by going from dismissing Obama’s presidential campaign as a fairytale in 2008, to being the most convincing surrogate for his re-election in 2012. Never mind the political calculation that this was the best way for him to lay the groundwork for Hillary’s presidential campaign in 2016; or that he has yet to make amends for approving in 1995:
…the inherently unfair, if not racist, ‘wet foot, dry foot’ immigration policy, which stipulates that seafaring Cuban refugees who make it to U.S. shores must be assimilated, unconditionally; whereas seafaring Haitian refugees (fleeing even greater persecution and privations) who make it must be repatriated, summarily.
(“Compassion Fatigue for Haitian Migrants,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 31, 2009)
But I digress….
The point is that most gays and lesbians probably consider Clinton sufficiently repentant, and thus redeemed, for being in the vanguard of those calling for a repeal of DOMA. No doubt it also helps that both he and Hillary have come out of the closet in recent months in support of same-sex marriages.
I just think it cheapens and undermines gay civil rights for GLAAD to honor a politician like Clinton – whose regard for its principled cause has always been so notoriously compromised. Especially when it could have honored someone like California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom who, unlike Clinton, always championed laws to advance gay rights.
Not to mention what an insult making Clinton the recipient of this inaugural award is to a bona fide advocate for change like Larry Kramer who spent his entire life advocating for the advancement of LGBT people.
Related commentaries:
Obama Nobel…
Discriminating against gays in military…
DADT…
DOMA…