The Clintons are going on a world tour (and damn do they look good!)

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19. 1996 AIDS Memorial Quilt & the enormous role Pres Bill & Hillary played in AIDS/HIV funding

Hillary Clinton Speaking about the AIds Memorial Quilt at the 2012 International Conference

"What staunch allies Bill and Hillary Clinton have been to the LGBT community, how hard they fought during their White House years (and today) for funding for HIV/AIDS.

Clinton was steadfast in fighting for money for finding a cure for this horrible disease and just like today, he had to battle a hostile Republican Congress to get funding for these programs.

Without Bill and Hillary Clinton’s leadership in the 1990’s, there are likely millions of people who would not be alive today.

Bill Clinton’s administration increased funding for AIDS programs by 358% for one department and 150% for another. They initiated a multitude a programs to provide drugs and housing and against discrimination. They did this despite a hostile Republican Congress."

Hillary Clinton has been a leader on LGBT issues in both the Senate and in the State Department.
Some folks seem to focus on marriage equality as if that was the only item on the LGBT agenda.
What about Hate Crimes? Hillary was there fighting to get LGBT included. What about ENDA? She was there fighting for this long overdue bill to prohibit LGBT discrimination in all federal employment and contracting.

“Gay Rights Are Human Rights.” Hillary Clinton

As Secretary of State, Clinton became the first in her position to robustly advocate for LGBT equality throughout the world, making a historic and forceful speech to the United Nations declaring that “gay rights are human rights.” In the Senate, she helped lead on bills to protect LGBT workers from employment discrimination, and had a strong record on key votes and legislation that mattered to LGBT Americans.”

Before President Clinton, no US President gave a damn about gay rights or the mounting death toll in the LGBT community from AIDS. This changed dramatically in 1992 upon the election of Bill Clinton.

Clinton set the tone for his presidency by inviting the N.A.M.E.S. Project to include sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in his 1993 inaugural parade.
In his two terms in office, Bill Clinton never wavered in wrangling money in his budgets for programs caring for the sick or to preserve vital research funding for effective treatments and to find a cure.

When the AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed in the National Mall in 1992 it contained 40,000 panels and covered 24 football fields.


Here's the photo and story from that moment


 Keith Molter shares his story of being at the Quilt in Washington DC in 1996 when by chance he witnessed Bill and Hillary Clinton visit the Quilt seeking out a specific quilt made in honor of a longtime friend of hers. Keith recalls:

It was stone silent on the vast Washington Mall. No fanfare. No hoopla. They simply went and we had stumbled upon it.

Silence. Stillness. They got out of their motorcade hand in hand and walked through the Quilt.

It was THE first time it was ever acknowledged by anyone of any higher level in government.
They stood. They prayed. They looked at a few other panels. They wiped tears.
We were 100 feet away. As they turned to leave, the still silence was broken by a squelching sound, like an animal in deep pain. It was me screaming “Thank you!” through my sobs, my voice cracking. They both turned. He put his hand up in a still wave and nodded his head -his mouth doing that mouth/chin thing he does. They turned and left.

I was there. They were there – maybe too late for some that we lost. But they were there as soon as they could – once the country elected two people who actually cared.


johnsmithchicago.com