Clinton Signals He’d Sign Anti-Gay Marriage Bill

The White House, acting to defuse a politically potent weapon against President Clinton, said Wednesday that the president would sign a GOP-backed bill limiting same-sex marriages if the measure passes in its current form.

A week after charging that the bill is “designed to provoke hostility toward gays and lesbians,” White House spokesman Mike McCurry said that Clinton supports the gist of the Defense of Marriage Act and “would sign that bill if it was presented to him as it’s currently written.”

McCurry’s comments culminated several days of unofficial suggestions that Clinton would support the bill and laid to rest any remaining doubt about his position. The measure is co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and Republicans had promised to make it a central election-year issue if Clinton acts to block it.

Now moving through both the House and Senate, the bill defines marriage, for purposes of federal benefits, as a union between a man and a woman. It also allows states the right not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

Clinton’s support for the bill drew infuriated responses from gay and lesbian groups Wednesday.

Gay-rights activist David Mixner, a former Clinton advisor and fund-raiser, said Wednesday that he was “livid and nauseated” by Clinton’s decision, which he described as “political opportunism at its most crass.”

“They’re using it to prove he can stand up to the gay and lesbian community . . . ,” said Mixner. “This could take decades to overcome. It is a dramatic step backwards.”

But some Democratic strategists warned that a presidential veto would be politically disastrous. “Clinton is trying to neutralize any issue that might give Sen. Dole an advantage,” said Brian Lunde, former executive director of the Democratic National Committee.

“It’s a no-brainer in a presidential election year . . . ,” he said. “This is an uncontrollable issue and, very frankly, most voters are opposed to the idea of gay marriage.”

Others indicated that with Wednesday’s statement Clinton is staking out a middle ground on gay and lesbian rights that will likely sit well with voters.

“President Clinton has drawn the line with this decision on how far this society will go in accepting gays as part of the community,” said Ed Sarpolus, vice president of EPIC/MRA, a Michigan-based polling group. “He’s not going to deny gays and lesbians a job or equal rights or protection. But he’s saying there’s a line between guaranteeing rights and extending them to include an institution that most Americans don’t see as applying to gays.”