ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609130018
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
Sen. Charles Robb - the only Southern senator to vote against the federal ban on gay marriages - traces the strength of his feelings on the issue to the racial discrimination he witnessed growing up in Northern Virginia.
In an interview after the Senate's vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, the Virginia Democrat talked about how his school bus used to roll past stops in a predominantly black neighborhood that was closer to his school than his home was.
Because of their color, the black students waiting at those stops had to catch another bus to ride to another school.
Robb said he saw the same discrimination against gays years later in the Marine Corps, where promotions sometimes were denied to Marines who were suspected of being homosexual.
"I believe that ending this discrimination is the last frontier in the ultimate fight for civil and human rights," Robb said.
Robb acknowledged that opposing the ban on same-sex marriages would be politically risky in conservative Virginia. "It's not easy to take on this issue," he said, but "I would not be true to my conscience or my oath of office if I failed to speak out."
And speak out he did. Not only was Robb one of just 14 senators to vote against the bill Tuesday, he took to the Senate floor to deliver a ringing denunciation of the legislation. Delivered in a hushed chamber before an audience that included his wife, Robb's speech had a personal, emotional tone that contrasted with the Virginian's usual subdued treatment of legislation.
A Robb aide said the senator and his staff worked for several weeks on the speech. Its importance to Robb was underscored by the presence of his wife, Lynda, eldest daughter of the late President Lyndon Johnson, in the Senate gallery as he delivered it.
Robb, who rarely refers in public to his relationship to Johnson, recalled his father-in-law by name in the speech's concluding paragraph. Johnson was fond of saying "it's not hard to do what's right. It's hard to know what's right," Robb said. In the case of the marriage act, "we know it is right to abolish discrimination."
This is not the first time Robb has spoken out for gay rights. A former Marine who was a company commander in Vietnam, he has been a leader in the effort to allow homosexuals to serve in the military.
Robb has advocated going beyond the Clinton administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to give gay servicemen and women a way to acknowledge their sexuality.
For the full text of Robb's speech, go on-line at: http://www.senate.gov/~robb
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB