Hypocrisy.

This is Part 3 of a series about Hillary's hypocrisy in calling out the bigotry of Trump and/or his supporters. It focuses upon the Clintons vis-à-vis rights of members of the LGBT community.

Important to note: Democratic politicians are quite beholden to members of the LGBT community (referred to in this post as "gay," only for brevity): One in six of the top bundlers for the Democrats is openly gay; one in sixteen of all Democratic bundlers is openly gay; wealthy gay individuals, such as Ellen Malcolm, an IBM heir and founder of EMILY's list, and James Hormel, an Hormel Foods heir and the first openly gay U.S. ambassador, have been generous donors to the Democratic Party and Democratic politicians; and organizations like the Human Rights Campaign support Democratic politicians in various ways. http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/05/politics/lgbt-obama-donors/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/05/14/inside-obamas-lgbt-d... ; http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2013/04/hrcs-griffin-launches-hillary-rodh... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hormel ; https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000158

Among Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign promises had been lifting the ban on gays in the military, about the least he could do for gays. (One of the safest things any U.S. politician can do is to wave the flag about fairness to members of the U.S. military.) A report done all the way back in 1957 had indicated that gays did not affect the military adversely. However, Bill Clinton later claimed that Colin Powell had, in essence, been mistaken or misleading to Bill Clinton about the infamous Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crittenden_Report ; http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-clinton-colin-powell-dont-ask-dont-tell...

First, Bill Clinton is way too smart and too shrewd to have been misled by Colin Powell. Second, Clinton governed by polls and triangulation, when it came to pleasing his base. His bold strokes were those that leaned right, not those that leaned left; and Don't Ask, Don't Tell was the most triangulated way that Clinton could have addressed his much broader campaign promise. Ultimately, Obama had the policy repealed--but only after 2010 midterms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_ask,_don%27t_tell ; http://thehill.com/homenews/house/67477-leaders-fix-on-strategy-for-dont...

Bill Clinton also disgracefully signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act, using two favorite Bill and Hillary Clinton excuses for bad bills: (1) the bill was needed to stave off a Constitutional amendment (bs) and (2) there was a "veto-proof majority" (also bs, unless and until a veto actually is overridden ). The Supreme Court of the United States ultimately struck DOMA down in 2013. With both DADT and DOMA, both likely unconstitutional, to his "credit," not once has Hillary placed Bill Clinton or his supporters in a basket of deplorables for homophobia. And that is but one reason that her name is Hypocrisy. The rest is her very own acts and omissions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Windsor

Hillary said nothing publicly about equal rights for gays until 1999, when she was poised to run for the Senate as Senator from liberal New York and would need gay and straight bundlers as well as votes of liberals of all orientations. Then, she said for the very first time--at a fundraiser for gay contributors to her campaign-- that she opposed DADT, which her husband had announced in July, 1993 and signed into law in November, 1993. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/19/bill-clinton-dont-ask-dont-tell...

As for marriage, domestic matters (marriage, divorce, adoption, surrogacy, wills and the like) have long been considered matters of state, not federal, law. In 2000, Vermont became the first state in the U.S. to recognize "civil union" which Hillary supported. In 2001, seven same sex couples filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts, claiming that denying their right to a marriage license violated the state constitution. Their suit would ultimately result in Massachusetts's becoming the first state to recognize equal marriage. In May, 2002, however a lower court judge disagreed with the plaintiffs, saying equal marriage was a matter for the Massachusetts state legislature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Massachusetts

At this time, Democratic politicians began saying that states should decide this state law issue. However, Hillary, by then a U.S. Senator from the State of New York stated in 2002 that she did not believe that New York State should grant its residents equal marriage. In 2004, she spoke against equal marriage on the floor of the US Senate. In 2007, Hillary said it was a question of state law, which contradicted her 2002 opposition to equal marriage in New York State. She also said, though, that she opposed equal marriage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I1-r1YgK9I

She continued waffling and equivocating in typical Hillary Clinton fashion until April 28, 2013-- the day the SCOTUS was to hear oral argument in the Windsor case--Hillary finally supported equal marriage. http://www.weeklystandard.com/hillary-flashback-no-new-york-should-not-r... https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/03/18/how-hillary-c... http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/17/hillary-c...

Candidly, both Bill and Hillary Clinton have made me nauseous around this issue--and their negative views and actions toward equal rights for gays are many times more consequential to gays than my positive ones or the view of some anonymous Trump supporter. So, how hypocritical is Hillary to put Trump supporters in a basket for homophobia, but not President Bill Clinton or former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton?

But, wait! There's more! Indeed, there's so much more that I will need to write at least one more blog entry about Hillary's, um, gaffes, but probably more than one. (So much Clinton bigotry, so little attention span.)

*Parts One and Two of this series are at http://caucus99percent.com/content/hillary-thy-name and http://caucus99percent.com/content/hillary-thy-name-part-two