My Life, by Bill Clinton: on Civil Rights


Robert Byrd: Homosexuality is a sin; no gays in military

In early 1992 I met to discuss gays in the military with members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, including Senators Sam Nunn and Robert Byrd. Nunn, while opposed to my position, had agreed to the six-month delay. Some of my staffers were upset with him for his early and forceful opposition, but I wasn't; after all, he was personally conservative, and as chairman of the committee, he honored the military culture and saw it as his duty to protect it. He was not alone.

Senator Byrd took a harder line than Nunn. He believed homosexuality was a sin; said he would never let his grandson, whom he adored, join a military that admitted gays; and asserted that one reason the Roman Empire fell was the acceptance of pervasive homosexual conduct in the Roman legions from Julius Caesar on down.

Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.484 Jun 21, 2004

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