A Stitch in Haste

Dear Senator Clinton:

Regarding your new-found desire to court gay voters:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has quietly jumped into the struggle for insurance benefits for thousands of same-sex partners -- a move that is likely to cool some of the heat she's been getting from the gay community for opposing same-sex marriage.

Clinton is among a handful of co-sponsors of Sen. Joe Lieberman's 11th-hour measure providing family benefits to federal workers' domestic partners.

Under the Connecticut Democrat's proposal, same-sex partners would be eligible for benefits if they are in a committed relationship, live together and share responsibility for each other's welfare.

It's very easy and convenient, not to mention fleeting and futile, to piggyback onto another senator's bill and then trumpet yourself as a champion of gay rights.

You may be selling, but we're not buying.

If you want to beg forgiveness for your repeated selling out -- as most Democrats do -- of gays, if you want to erase your and your party's record of taking the gay vote for granted while stabbing us in the back, then you need to do a bit more than offer up some tertiary garnish:

--Call for full and immediate marriage equality for gays.

--Publicly apologize for, and condemn, your and anyone else's call for "leaving it up to the states." Denial of equal rights is just as damnable at the state level as at the federal level.

--Publicly apologize for, and condemn, your pervert husband's signing into law of the Defense of Marriage Act and Don't Act, Don't Tell, and immediately introduce or co-sponsor legislation repealing both. (Incidentally, has it occurred to you that federal DOMA may very well prohibit your proposed extension of federal insurance benefits to same-sex couples?)

That would be a good start. In the meantime, stop wasting our time with hollow campaign-season gobbledygook.

Respectfully,
--A constituent.

P.S. Most people who have websites intended to convey information include a search feature. Your website does not. So I can't be 100% certain. But based on my best efforts to scan your site, the word "gay" does not appear anywhere. Not once. The silence is deafening.