Tag Archive | "Bill Clinton"

President Bill Clinton to Deliver Address at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts

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Former President Bill Clinton will share his insights and observations in a program entitled Embracing Our Common Humanity.

The event will take place at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m., in the venue’s Au-Rene Theater.

The evening will feature the 42nd President of the United States exploring the challenges of globalization, the growing interdependence of nations, and ways toward a common future based on shared goals and values.

“As Broward County’s official cultural embassy, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts plays an important role in promoting the exchange of ideas,” said Broward Center President and CEO Kelley Shanley.  “We are pleased to have this opportunity to bring President Clinton to Broward County for this exclusive South Florida speaking engagement.”

After serving as President of the United States for eight years from 1993 to 2001, Clinton founded the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the U.S. and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.

The Clinton Foundation includes staff and volunteers around the world working through several initiatives that address critical health issues, climate change, and sustainable growth in developing countries.

President Clinton was named United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti in 2009 following a series of devastating hurricanes. The appointment built on his longstanding commitment to Haiti while in the White House and his work through the Clinton Global Initiative, which has brought together thousands of world leaders, business executives, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, and innovative thinkers to take action to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

President Clinton and former President George W. Bush established the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund following the 2010 earthquake to raise funds for immediate, high-impact relief and long-term recovery efforts on the island.

Tickets are on sale now to the general public and are available through the Broward Center’s AutoNation Box office at 954/462-0222 or   www.BrowardCenter.org.

Larry Flynt Offers $1-Million for Dirt on Perry

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AUSTIN, TX – Larry Flynt and his Hustler Magazine are offering $1 million to anyone who can document a gay or straight sexual relationship with Republican presidential hopeful and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Flynt made the offer in a full-page ad in the Austin Chronicle. The ad also ran in the national satire publication, The Onion.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Flynt said his office hears considerable chatter about Perry’s private life.
Flynt made a similar offer regarding President Bill Clinton in 1998.

President Clinton Endorses Marriage Equality

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Human Rights Campaign has released a statement from former President Bill Clinton endorsing marriage equality

legislation for same-sex couples in the State of New York. The statement from the former president was issued to the New York State lawmakers as they returned to session last week. Supporters of marriage equality are pushing for a vote during this legislative session which ends in June.

Clinton’s statement read:

“Our nation’s permanent mission is to form a ‘more perfect union’ – deepening the meaning of freedom, broadening the reach of opportunity, strengthening the bonds of community. That mission has inspired and empowered us to extend rights to people previously denied them. Every time we have done that, it has strengthened our nation. Now we should do it again, in New York, with marriage equality. For more than a century, our Statue of Liberty has welcomed all kinds of people from all over the world yearning to be free. In the 21st century, I believe New York’s welcome must include marriage equality.”

Clinton’s endorsement comes as a record 58 percent of New Yorkers support committed gay and lesbian couples getting married. This unprecedented level of support comes from every region of the state, every age group and is clearly bipartisan. Prominent New York business leaders recently wrote a letter making the case that marriage equality is good for business.

DOMA is Illegal, Judge Rules

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Courts Decision Could Aid in Same-Sex Marriage Fights all Across the Country

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV

(Photo: Courtesy of queertoday.com)

A U.S. judge issued a ruling last week that states that the federal ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional because it interferes with a state’s right to define marriage.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro’s ruling after two separate challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA.

“Today the court simply affirmed that our country won’t tolerate second-class marriages,” said Mary Bonauto, civil rights project director for the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.  “I’m pleased that Judge Tauro recognized that married same-sex couples and surviving spouses have been seriously harmed by DOMA and that the plaintiffs deserve the same opportunities to care and provide for each other and for their children that other families enjoy.”

The State of Massachusetts said the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in the state, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.

The judge agreed, saying the act “plainly encroaches” upon the right of

the state to determine marriage.

In a second case, Tauro ruled that the act violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Although his rulings apply only to Massachusetts, they could have broader implications for other states in which same-sex marriage is legal if they are upheld on appeal.

“Today’s decision is a confirmation of what every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender American knows to be a basic truth – we, and our families, are equal,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “This is an important step forward, but there is a long path ahead before we see this discriminatory law consigned to the dustbin of history.”

Several groups who oppose same-sex marriage said they are not worried about the judge’s decision and believe the rulings will be overturned on appeal.

“It’s not surprising that this judge got it wrong, because a sham defense was put up by the Obama Justice Department,” said Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, a group vehemently opposed to same-sex marriages.

Congress initially enacted DOMA in 1996 after Hawaii became the first state to legalize same-sex unions. If the law is overturned same-sex couples could argue they qualify for federal marriage benefits, which would have wide-ranging implications in such areas as immigration.

Under federal rules, there is an automatic 14-day stay of judgments in civil cases, so same-sex couples in Massachusetts won’t be able to file for benefits immediately, said Gary Buseck, legal director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. If the Justice Department appeals Tauro’s rulings, the court would likely grant a stay while the appeal is pending, he said.

During his campaign President Barack Obama had said repeatedly that he would like to see DOMA, repealed. But the Justice Department has defended the constitutionality of the law, which it is required to do.

Neither Obama, nor his spokespeople or the justice department would comment on the rulings.

Many Obama voters, particularly among gays, will push for the administration not to appeal Tauro’s rulings, said former Assistant Attorney General Robert Raben. But the administration could set a dangerous precedent if it does not continue to defend the law, he said.

“You want the Department of Justice to stop because you won a case; I understand that,” said Raben, who worked at the department during the administration of President Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA into law.

“But you could have a conservative Department of Justice that won’t enforce hate crimes, that won’t enforce employment nondiscrimination acts, that won’t enforce the Ryan White Act, that won’t enforce all kinds of new protections for gays and lesbians because the attorney general doesn’t agree with them. That’s not a regime you want to live in.”

Not only did the judge’s ruling affect same-sex marriage, but it took a broad stance about the type of control the federal government can have over sovereign states.

“The Constitution isn’t about political ideology,” said Michael Boldin, the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, a group based in Los Angeles. “It’s about liberty, and limiting the government to certain divisive issues — I applaud what I consider a very rare ruling from the judiciary.”

Others, like Steve V. Moon, a software programmer and founder of States-rights.org, a group founded in Utah in 2008, said the judge’s decision was both right and wrong.

“It’s unconstitutional for the federal government to pass laws superseding state authority — and the judge did affirm states’ rights in this area,” he said. “But I personally believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman and support any state passing laws affirming the sanctity of marriage.”

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