ABSTRACT
“I have a vision and you are a part of it.” On 18 May 1992 at the Palace Theatre in Los Angeles, then-Governor Bill Clinton memorialized an enormous success for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movement. Clinton was the first presidential candidate ever to openly support the LGBT community and actively seek their votes, and his campaign marked the beginning of what has become a high-profile alliance between the LGBT movement and the Democratic Party. In exchange for this historic support, LGBT voters donated almost $4 million to Clinton's 1992 campaign and favored him 80 percent to 20 percent on election day. Within a year, however, the vision appeared to fade, as Clinton receded from his campaign promise to issue an executive order lifting the ban on military service for LGBT individuals. His “Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue” proposal, offered as a “compromise” between the LGBT movement and its opponents, was lambasted by movement leaders, journalists, and grassroots activists who expected more from their White House ally. Torrie Osborn, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, characterized the alleged compromise as a “repackaging of discrimination,” and Tim McFeeley of the Human Rights Campaign Fund publicly lamented the “shattering disappointment for millions of gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans” (Rimmerman, 1996: 119; Los Angeles Times, 1993).
