by Karen Ocamb

Hillary Clinton is fond of noting that she has been vetted, investigated, cajoled, slimed and examined so thoroughly since her job as first lady of Arkansas that there’s nothing new to learn about her.

And then she teared up during a campaign stop before the New Hampshire Primary and the world met someone new—the “softer” side of the wonkish Democratic presidential candidate.

A Wellesley graduate and a one-time “Goldwater girl,” Clinton left the GOP over what she considered its racist platform, a perception underscored by having met Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1962. “It was a transforming experience for me,” she told an audience at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on Jan. 20, celebrating Martin Luther King Day. “He made it very clear that the Civil Rights movement was about economic justice.” Afterwards, Rev. Calvin Butts endorsed her.

Clinton subsequently campaigned for anti-Vietnam War candidates Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern before graduating form Yale Law School where she was an editor of the Law Review. Post-graduation, she was a staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund and served as a Congressional legal counsel during the Watergate hearings, before moving to Arkansas and marrying Bill Clinton. While he served as governor, she worked at the Rose Law Firm and was dubbed one of the most influential lawyers in America.

The Clintons were constantly dogged by what she once called “the vast right-wing conspiracy.” Former conservative gay writer David Brock, author of the infamous anti-Clinton “Troopergate” story in The American Spectator, confirmed the right-wing conspiracy in his book, Blinded by the Right, and tried to make up for his part in it by co-founding Media Matters for America.

The emotional moment in New Hampshire gave the Clinton-haters angina—again. No crying in politics, they cried—ignoring the fact that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney teared up on Tim Russert’s Meet the Press.

Several women pundits later posited that the perception of men “ganging up” on Clinton, a qualified candidate legitimately trying to break through the glass ceiling, contributed to her win in the New Hampshire Primary.

Women are an important voting block, not the least to eradicate her extemporaneous remark during the 1992 presidential campaign, when she said she wasn’t “some Tammy Wynette standing by my man”—which ironically she became after the Lewinsky affair and Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.

Hillary Clinton revealed her “softer” side to this reporter during a 1991 interview when I asked if she had lost any friends to AIDS and she recalled her friend Dan Bradley.

“I visited him for the last time shortly before he died in Miami, where he was living at the time. … He got dressed up and came down and had breakfast with me in my hotel. That’s the kind of guy he was. He never complained about anything and just went on with his life. … He was a great friend, and he was a very effective advocate for whatever he believed in. I didn’t know that would be the last time I’d ever see him. He knew he was very sick, but he never talked about it. … I wish he was here today. I wish that he had not died. He taught me a lot,” Clinton said.

“It was a personal side of Hillary that I had rarely seen,” David Mixner (who now supports John Edwards) wrote in Stranger Among Friends. “If elected, I realized, Bill and Hillary would be the first occupants of the White House who had close openly gay and lesbian friends.”

Bradley wasn‘t the only friend Clinton lost to AIDS. As a U.S. Senator from New York, she eulogized her friend Bob Hattoy, the environmentalist whom Bill Clinton selected as the first gay person with AIDS to speak at the National Democratic Convention in 1991. Hattoy was one among many gays to join the Clinton Administration.

Indeed, Clinton looked sucker-punched during the Logo/HRC forum in Hollywood last August when singer Melissa Etheridge asked how gays could trust her when her husband had “thrown us under the bus,” referring to his signing the antigay military policy “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act.

“Well, you know, obviously, Melissa, I don't see it quite the way that you describe, but I respect your feeling about it,” Clinton said. “You know, from the moment that Bob Hattoy spoke at the Democratic convention, through the appointments that were made both to positions in Cabinet agencies as well as in the White House, to the ongoing struggle against Gingrich and the Republican majority, I think that we certainly didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I believe that there was a lot of honest effort going on by the president, the vice president and the rest of us who were trying to keep the momentum going. You know, I remember when I was running for the Senate as first lady marching in the gay pride parade in New York City, and to a lot of people that was just, you know, an unbelievable act … ”

“Hillary has been a longtime friend of the gay community—just look at her record (see www.hillaryclinton.com). She was there to fight against the Federal Marriage Amendment both times. As Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, she worked with the Human Rights Campaign and other leaders of the LGBT community to come up with a smart strategy to stop the FMA and together they defeated it,” Jin Chon, a Clinton campaign communications director, told IN Los Angeles magazine.

“Bill Clinton's presidency did more to advance the cause of fairness for the gay community, more than any other administration in history,” Chon said. “But Hillary's also running for president in her own right. And her record demonstrates her commitment to advancing fairness for all Americans. This also means that as Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin has said, we need to be smart about our strategy on how we get things done.

“As president, Hillary Clinton will end the divisive leadership of the past seven years and work with the LGBT community to make sure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal economic benefits and rights,” Chon said, as well as repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Clinton has also said she learned much from her failed attempt to pass universal healthcare under Bill Clinton’s administration. Now, according to Chon, “Hillary Clinton is the only Democratic candidate to address the link between crystal meth use and the increase in HIV infection in the gay community. As was discussed in her comprehensive HIV/AIDS policy: Hillary will work to halt and reverse the recent increase in infection rates among gay men, young people and people of color,” and she will work to decrease the factors that contribute to the high risk behavior, such as meth use.

“Hillary was a proud co-sponsor of the Combat Meth Act of 2005, which was signed into law on March 9, 2006,” Chon said. ”This law tightens restrictions on how pseudoephedrine is sold to ensure that it is not being trafficked, and provides resources for prevention, education and treatment. As president, Hillary will work to see that this law is implemented effectively.”

Clinton continues to be criticized for not promising to fully repeal DOMA. “Hillary's position on DOMA reflects her experience in fighting against FMA” with HRC in 2006, said Chon. As chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, “Hillary was able to explain to other Senators that DOMA ensured that marriage would be left to the states, which was important in defeating the amendment.

“Hillary supports repealing section three of DOMA because it prohibits the federal government from recognizing decisions made by the states providing equality of rights and benefits for gay and lesbian couples,” Chon said. “It wasn't until Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage that it became clear to her that there may be a conflict between the two—meaning couples in same-sex relationships in states with civil union laws could have access to federal benefits, while same-sex married couples in Massachusetts could be denied those benefits. She does not think that makes sense and so she reconsidered her support for section three of DOMA.

Chon will not say if Clinton is “on a journey” towards accepting marriage equality. “Hillary Clinton would like to see federal benefits extended to same-sex couples that meet certain standards of commitment, regardless of the state in which they reside,” he said. “Today, gay couples cannot share life decisions, jointly own property and take care of one another within a legal framework that provides them the peace of mind knowing that what they've worked for and built together cannot be taken away. She wants to change that, and she thinks extending federal benefits is a very important step forward,” but a complicated one towards which she intends to work with HRC and others “to determine the best path for realizing this goal.”

“People underestimated how deep and loyal her support is among a majority of women,” longtime politico Hilary Rosen told IN. “I still know she is going to be a great president.”

California’s Primary is on Feb. 5.