You clearly do not understand the context under which DoMA was passed. So let me explain it to you, and I hope you will take the opportunity to become a little more educated.
At the time, some progressive states were beginning to take steps toward same-sex marriage. This had conservative states, like Utah, in an uproar. So they were putting massive pressure on their representatives to enact a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
President Clinton saw the storm brewing.
So he passed DoMA, which did absolutely nothing to impede the progress being made in individual states. Massachusetts is proof-positive of that. What it did do, though, was alleviate the pressure for a constitutional ban, which would have been a long-lasting and very damaging effect.
The Clintons are not naive or inexperienced. They understood the full ramifications of DoMA, and recognized that it did far more good to the gay community than harm.
Most gay folks would tell you the exact same thing. So please, do a little homework before recycling the same, bitter politics that we're trying to move past.
Thank you for saving my time - was just about to write the same.
The facts are these: under Bill Clinton the rate of discharges of gay people from the military doubled; under Bill Clinton, the Defense Of Marriage Act did not only simply enshrine the pre-existing right of some states not to recognize the civil marriages of other states - as he misleadingly states - but barred all of us gay couples from any rights on a federal level; Bill Clinton cited the Defense of Marriage Act in re-election campaign ads in the South. Even now, he claims that repealing DOMA would lead to more persecution of gays, because more states would allegedly pass anti-gay constitutional amendments. But there are very very few left that could do more to stigmatize gay couples than currently do. And he still resists any defense of gay equality in substance seeing it entirely, as he did in office, as a matter of partisan positioning. Just as he left any mention of any gay people and any gay appointees out of his interminable autobiography, he still will not stand up for gay equality when confronted by the next generation.
