Former US President Bill Clinton
BY ZACK FORD
ThinkProgress
In an editorial published Thursday, President Bill Clinton explained that even though he signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996, he does not stand by it. Signing DOMA into law, he suggested, helped dissipate the more “draconian” momentum to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. In fact, he now believes it to be not only constitutional, but blatantly discriminatory against gays and lesbians.
“When I signed the bill,” he writes, “I included a statement with the admonition that ‘enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination.’ Reading those words today, I know now that, even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law is itself discriminatory. It should be overturned.”
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