President Carter Puts Foot in Mouth – Calls Same-Sex Relationships “Not Normal”
In a long interview on this day, in which he planned to highlight his family-friendly policies, President Jimmy Carter suggested that same-sex relationships were “not normal.”
The issue came up in response to a question about allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. The comment alienated Carter’s lesbian and gay supporters.
The comments were unfortunate, because during the 1976 presidential campaign, Carter became the first major party candidate to oppose employment discrimination against homosexuals, on May 21, 1976. Also, early in his administration, a delegation of lesbian and gay activists met with his staff in the White House on March 26, 1977 — a first in American history.
A national gay rights movement (later expanded as the LBGT movement) was inspired by the Stonewall Inn riots, sparked by a harassing police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City on June 28, 1969, in which gay men and lesbian women fought back against the police.
The most important moment in the history of LGBT people was the landmark Supreme Court decision ruling that same-sex marriages were constitutional on June 26, 2015.
Learn more about the history of psychiatry and homosexuality: http://www.aglp.org/gap/1_history/
Years later, Carter says the U.S. is ready for a gay president: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPVXQp3ebN4
Learn more about President Carter’s civil liberties record: Samuel Walker, Presidents and Civil Liberties From Wilson to Obama (2012)
Read the new biography of Jimmy Carter: Kai Bird, The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter (2021)
Learn more about Carter’s post-presidential work at the Carter Center: http://www.cartercenter.org/index.html