The Hillary Clinton campaign is out with an ad highlighting her record as an advocate for LGBT rights. The spot includes images of gay couples kissing each other.
The liberal website Slate praises Clinton for including same-sex kissing in her campaign ad, saying, “Given the distressingly puritanical rules that govern gay PDAs, it’s both impressive and heartening that Clinton includes gay kisses in her official campaign spots.”
“The ad forces viewers to confront images that might make them feel slightly uneasy, then encourages them to view such affection as a normal, healthy manifestation of adult intimacy.”
The Slate writer complains that, “it is a depressing but incontestable fact that most straight people—including many LGBT allies—are uncomfortable with the sight of same-sex kisses. Some straight people defend their disgust by pretending to be repulsed by all public kissing.”
In the ad, Clinton says that she’s “running for president to stand up for the fundamental rights for LGBT Americans and all Americans.”
However, Clinton has had a shaky record when it comes to same-sex marriage. In 2010 the State Department changed the passport application forms from “Mother” and “Father” to “Parent 1” and “Parent 2,” in order to accommodate and recognize same-sex parents.
Emails released by the State Department show that then-Secretary of State Hillary was furious over the decision to give out gay-friendly passports. She sent an angry email to a staffer saying she wouldn’t defend the decision, “which I disagree w and knew nothing about, in front of this Congress.”
It was also reported that in 2000, then-President Bill Clinton told historian Taylor Branch that Hillary experienced “discomfort” around “gay people who were king of acting out.” He told the historian that Hillary was, “a little put off by some of this stuff” and found gay rights “harder to swallow.”
Clinton did not come out in favor of same-sex marriage until 2013.
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