Hillary Clinton finds herself in hot water with a key constituency tonight after a once secret email was released showing Clinton furious that gender-neutral terms were being added to passport forms without her knowledge. She also expressed fear of having to deal with Sarah Palin.
The incident is particularly revealing, showing Clinton as clueless, lacking control of basic aspects of State Department governance and finding the former Secretary of State in rare agreement with conservative stalwarts like Tony Perkins.
Problems with the LGBT community are the last thing Clinton needs right now as she deals with horrendous poll numbers and faces the prospect of Vice President Joe Biden joining the race. It is also a reminder of Clinton’s formerly staunch opposition to gay marriage on the Senate floor.
The email between Clinton and her aides was released today as part of the latest batch from the State Department, is below:
“Who made the decision that State will not use the terms “mother and father” and instead substitute “parent one and two”? I’m not defending that decision, which I disagree w and knew nothing about, in front of this Congress. I could live w letting people in nontraditional families choose another descriptor so long as we retained the presumption of mother and father. We need to address this today or we will be facing a huge Fox-generated media storm led by Palin et al.”
One of the aides responded she was”reaching out to folks to find out” who instituted the new policy.
Clinton’s statements run contrary to public comments at the time from the State Department.
According to the Washington Post:
“The State Department has decided to make U.S. passport application forms “gender neutral” by removing references to mother and father, officials said, in favor of language that describes one’s parentage somewhat less tenderly.
The change is “in recognition of different types of families,” according to a statement issued just before Christmas that drew widespread attention Friday after a Fox News report.”
The article highlights groups like the Human Rights Coalition adamantly supporting the change while conservative groups sided with Clinton, blasting the move.
“The new policy is a win for gay rights groups, a vocal and financially generous Democratic voting bloc that has pushed for the change since Barack Obama began his presidential transition in late 2008. The decision follows last month’s vote to end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which gay leaders consider one of their biggest victories in years.
Fred Sainz, vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group, called the news “a positive step forward for all American families. It was time that the federal government acknowledged the reality that hundreds of thousands of kids in this country are being raised by same-sex parents.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, blasted it as reflecting the “topsy-turvy world of left-wing political correctness.”
“This is clearly designed,” he said in a statement, “to advance the causes of same-sex ‘marriage’ and homosexual parenting without statutory authority, and violates the spirit if not the letter of the Defense of Marriage Act,” the federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.”
The revelation comes as Clinton’s poll numbers have plummeted, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders now leading in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
