Hillary Clinton Knew Right-Wing Would Storm Over Pro-Gay State Dept. Form Change, Emails Show

The latest batch of emails released by the State Dept. from Hillary Clinton’s private server reveal that the then Secretary of State knew a right-wing media storm would ensue over a State department policy change in which the titles of ‘mother’ and ‘father’ were changed to the gender neutral ‘parent’ on official forms.

The changes were rolled back but the dialogue between Clinton and the State Dept. has not been revealed until now.

Said Clinton in the email:

“Who made the decision that State will not use the terms ‘mother and father’ and instead substitute ‘parent one and two’?” Clinton wrote. “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.”

The Washington Blade‘s Chris Johnson reports:

The Clinton campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the candidate regrets those words in her email. The Human Rights Campaign and Freedom to Marry also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gregory Angelo, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, said the email demonstrates Clinton’s lack of commitment to LGBT rights.

“I hate to be a told-you-so, but as with so many other matters related to LGBT equality, this latest revelation about Hillary Clinton underlines what Log Cabin Republicans has long said: Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted as a standard-bearer for the community,” Angelo said. “She’s always been a follower in the work toward LGBT rights, never a leader. How many more revelations await in future email dumps before LGBT Democrats understand that her position on these issues is largely no different from Republicans?”

We reported on the change back in 2011. The State Department announced that the forms would now ask for the names of the child’s “mother or parent 1” and “father or parent 2.” The email appears to reveal Clinton was savvy enough to know the s–tstorm that would arise and had the State Department come up with a reasonable compromise.