Page "Bill Clinton" Paragraph 52

On September 21, 1996, barely three years after the " Don't Ask, Don't Tell " imbroglio, and further straining relations with the LGBT community, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act ( DOMA ), which defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.

Paul Yandura, speaking for the White House gay and lesbian liaison office, said that Clinton's signing of DOMA " was a political decision that they made at the time of a re-election.

" Administration spokesman Richard Socarides said, "... the alternatives we knew were going to be far worse, and it was time to move on and get the president re-elected.

" Clinton himself stated that DOMA was something " which the Republicans put on the ballot to try to get the base vote for President Bush up, I think it ’ s obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican Congress from presenting that.

" Others were more critical.

Representative Barney Frank ( D-MA ) called these claims " historic revisionism ”.

In a July 2, 2011 editorial the New York Times opined, " The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 as an election-year wedge issue, signed by President Bill Clinton in one of his worst policy moments.