To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true. ~Bayard Rustin

UPDATE #1: This story was updated at 7:35 a.m. to include information about Jonathan Allen.





The attack was initiated when Jonathan Allen , whofirst " reported " this "story," uncovered the resolution Sanders signed as mayor of Burlington, VT in 1982. Allen is a political lapdog of the Democratic Party establishment. He worked for DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz , who was a co-chair of Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and co-authored Hillary's biography, HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton However, Allen's assertion has a fatal flaw. Nothing could be further from the truth than the theory he offers as proof positive that Bernie supported marriage asbetween a man and a woman. A look at the facts in their historical context determines the (in)significance of this potentially slanderous accusation by the Clinton camp, which Williamson L. Henderson, V , Chairman of the STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans' Association (SVA), called "Fact #1: This is a resolution of the Board of Aldermen (which essentially is their city council) of Burlington, Vermont. A resolution is a statement supported by at least a majority of a governing body.Fact #2: A mayor routinely signs proclamations and resolutions proffered by legislative bodies on a wide number of topics and subjects. Such proclamations are not bills and do not become law. Rather, they are an official statement supported by majority of a governing body.Fact #3: This particular resolution supports "We Believe in Marriage Week," a nation-wide attempt to stem the rising tide of divorce sweeping the nation, which other boards of aldermen supported via similar resolutions declaring the week from February 14-20, 1982 as such.Fact #4: The rising divorce rate and increase in the number of out-of-wedlock children being born were of particular unilateral, bipartisan concern, according to Henderson. Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan (whom Clinton replaced when she ran for Senator in New York in 2000) issued a report in 1965 essentially decrying a condemnation into poverty, particularly of minority families, who were being broken apart due to divorce and single-parent households.Fact #5: The terms "family values" and "traditional marriage" did not have the anti-LGBTQ meaning in 1982 that they do today. They were, instead, concerns over the family unit falling apart due to the increase in divorce and out-of-wedlock childbirth. Henderson further stated, "In 1982, nobody in the LGBTQ community was fighting for the right to marry. "," recalled, an LGBTQ activist, historian, and videographer.Neither was it seriously on the agenda more than a decade later. In 1999, the first openly-lesbian elected official in New York State,(D-NY) held a debate on the issue of marriage equality with, the first openly gay Republican from Peekskill, NY who was running for the Peekskill City Council: "bourgeois" Schmidt, the first elected official in NY to sign a statewide petition for marriage equality, recalled.As I have previously about , the LGBTQ community is losing its history , as well as its core values. If younger members of our community were more connected with our elders, this sort of political attack never would have been allowed. "," Wallace interjected.In fact, at the time this resolution was passed, there were no legal protections for LGBTQ individuals anywhere in the USA! One month later, Wisconsin became the first state to ban discrimination on the basis of sexuality. When Sanders passed a city ordinance banning discrimination against gays and lesbians a year later, he was at he forefront of the LGBTQ rights movement.What is deeply troubling to me is that Speaker Quinn (whom I heartily endorsed when she ran for Mayor of NYC in 2013), Senator Hoylman, and Mr. LaSalvia are all old enough to know better. They lived through the culture of the time in 1982, when police were conducting raids and mass arrests of gay and lesbian individuals, often facing up to 20 or more years in prison for the "crime" of being gay.," Schmidt, who now identifies as Libertarian, stated." Henderson scoffed.As an LGBTQ rights activist, I am deeply offended by the Clinton campaign's attempt to use a vile distortion of the struggle in our movement for equality, as a political attack. The campaign, and, owe Sanders an apology.