Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 01:53:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Rex Wockner Subject: Clinton/Dole debate transcript (gay parts) Subject: NC1904: Clinton/Dole debate transcript (gay parts) Excerpts from the Second Presidential Debate October 16, 1996 San Diego, California Mr. Lehrer: The next question is for President Clinton. Yes, sir? Question: I'm Bob Goldfarb. {Rex: Yes, I know him!} I'm a travel agent. And can you please explain your policy on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would have prohibited discrimination, would have prohibited people from being fired from their jobs simply for being gay or lesbian? President Clinton: I'm for it. That's my policy. I'm for it. I believe that any law-abiding tax-paying citizen who shows up in the morning and doesn't break the law and doesn't interfere with his or her neighbors ought to have the ability to work in our country and shouldn't be subject to unfair discrimination. I'm for it. Now, I have a little time left, so let me just say that I get attacked so many times on these questions it's hard to answer all those things. In February -- Senator Dole just said we had the worst economy in a century. In February he said we had the best economy in 30 years. Just February. And I don't want to respond in kind to all these things. I could. I could answer a lot of these things tit for tat. But I hope we can talk about what we're going to do in the future. No attack ever created a job or educated a child or helped a family make ends meet. No insult ever cleaned up a toxic waste dump or helped an elderly person. Now, for four years that's what I've worked on. If you'll give me four years more, I'll work on it some more. And I'll try to answer these charges, but I prefer to emphasize direct answers to the future, and I gave you a direct answer. Mr. Lehrer: Senator Dole? Mr. Dole: Well, I'm opposed to discrimination in any form, but I'm -- but I don't favor creating special rights for any group. That would be my answer to this question. And I'm -- you know, there'd be special rights for different groups in America, but I'm totally opposed to discrimination, don't have any policy against hiring anyone -- whether it's lifestyle or whatever, we don't have any policy of that kind, never have had in my office, nor will we have in the future. But as far as special rights, I'm opposed to same-sex marriages -- which the president signed well after midnight one morning, in the dark of night -- he opposed it. ************************************************ Mr. Lehrer: All right, this is our last question. It goes to President Clinton and it's from this section. Yes ma'am? Question: My name is Evette Duby and I too am a minister; I'm with the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. President Clinton, perhaps you can help me with something tonight. I've heard Mr. Dole say several times, "All of us together." And when he was asked if he would support equal rights in employment for gay and lesbian people, you said that you favored that, and he said that he did not believe in special rights. And I thought the question was equal rights for all people, and I don't understand why people are using the term "special rights" when the question is equal rights. Could you help me in understanding that? President Clinton: Now I think I have to let Senator Dole speak for himself. It wouldn't be fair for me to do that. I would wind up -- I mean, it's the last question, and I'd mischaracterize it to try to make you happy. Let me tell you what I feel. We have a lot of differences in our country, and some of us believe that other people's decisions are wrong, even immoral. But under our Constitution, if you show up tomorrow and obey the law, and you work hard, and you do what you are supposed to do, you're entitled to equal treatment. That's the way the system works. All over the world, people are being torn apart -- Bosnia, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Burundi, you name it -- because of all their differences. We still have some of that hatred inside us -- you see it in the church burnings. And one of the things I've tried hardest to do is to tell the American people that we have to get beyond that, we have to understand that we're stronger when we unite around shared values instead of being divided by our differences. Mr. Lehrer: Senator Dole? Mr. Dole: Well, I hope I made my answer clear. I said I'm opposed to discrimination. You know, we've suffered discrimination in the disability community. There are 43 million of us. And I can recall cases where people would cross the street rather than meet somebody in a wheelchair. So we want to end discrimination. I think that answers itself. No discrimination in America. We've made that clear. And I would just say that it seems to me that that's the way it way it ought to be. We shouldn't discriminate -- race, color, whatever, lifestyle, disability. This is America, and we're all proud of it. But we're not there yet. What we need is good, strong leadership going into the next century. President Clinton: Let me say again, there is no more important responsibility for the president than to say if you believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, that's all we need to know. And you can be part of our America, and you can walk across that bridge to the 21st century with us. And we are not well served when we attack each other in a kind of an ad hominem way. It doesn't create jobs. It doesn't educate children. It doesn't solve problems. We need to be disagreeing on ideas honestly and talking about the future. The future will be the greatest time in this country's history if we can beat this division that is bedeviling the whole rest of the world. -end-