Subject: Response to Factual Errors
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 17:56:30 -0400

I am writing to respond to some factual errors in "opinion pieces" about the
events leading up to the Senate votes on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
and the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA). 

Before Congress adjourned for its August recess, the Senate reached  a
"consent agreement" on debate and amendments relating to the Defense of
Marriage Act. The agreement called for a vote on Sept. 5, and allowed up to
four amendments to be offered by both the Republicans and Democrats. Both
sides understood that the first amendment to be offered by the Democrats
(Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.) was going to be ENDA and, as part of the
agreement, ENDA would receive more debate time. This arrangement didn't
bother the Republicans because they were fairly confident that ENDA didn't
stand a chance.

As August wore on, HRC and other organizations worked on the lobbying,
organizing and media fronts to enlist support for the ENDA amendment to DOMA.
Through the political conventions and leading up to Sept. 5, we changed the
dynamics of the debate and ENDA seemed, while still an uphill battle,
possible. When the Republicans placed their amendments on the table, we knew
they thought ENDA could pass. Some accounts of the amendments and the
Democrats' response were accurate in describing Democrats as going
"ballistic" but they left out the key point: These amendments were introduced
with the purpose of blowing up the agreement, and Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott knew this.

Some written accounts also have not taken into consideration the daunting
political situation that we faced from the beginning. Trent Lott had the
votes to move forward on DOMA with no amendments. As the final DOMA vote
showed, we had very little support. We believe however, that we actually
boxed Lott into a corner on ENDA -- he did not want to be perceived as being
afraid of an ENDA vote. We do not actually know for certain why he agreed to
a vote, we can only speculate.

The tone of some of these writings implies that HRC and/or Sen. Kennedy gave
something up for an ENDA vote. This is just plain wrong. We never had
anything to give up. Trent Lott always held the cards on this and the fact
that we are able to get an ENDA vote at all was a miracle.

Other writings have accused HRC of giving a pass to Clinton or other members
of Congress on DOMA. Again, absolutely and unequivocally not true. We do
however believe that Clinton remains the better choice for president over Bob
Dole for reasons that I think are clear. We are not going to sever
communications with congressional offices that did not do the right thing on
DOMA because we (and you) need their support on other issues. They will be
brought around on the issue of legal recognition of our relationships and we
will be fighting other battles in the next Congress regardless of who is in
charge.

We all knew marriage was going to be the toughest fight of our lives, and it
has only just begun. We also know that we will eventually win this fight
because we are right. In the meantime, we know we will lose some battles, and
this one presented some especially difficult challenges. But this is a
long-term siege being waged on many fronts and HRC will continue to be
strategic in how it deploys resources and engages in combat. ENDA is now
positioned for passage in the next Senate. That's five years ahead of where
we thought we would be, and more than anybody expected out of this Congress.
Now we have to stay focused on electing as many supportive members to the new
Congress and re-electing the president so we don't have right-wing extremists
appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by the Christian Coalition presidency of
Bob Dole.

David Smith,
HRC Communications Director