Sanders also supported Vermont's civil unions law in 2000, and he was an outspoken proponent of gay marriage before the Legislature in his home state in 2009 passed one of the nation's first same-sex marriage laws. In 2010, he voted in the Senate to repeal the discriminatory policy known as 'Don't Ask Don't Tell.'
military policy which barred gays from serving openly in the armed forces.
Sanders previously had voted in 1993 against the now-abandoned U.S. The law signed by then-President Bill Clinton denied federal benefits to gays who were legally married. Sanders was in the minority of lawmakers who voted against the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. In 1996, as Vermont's member of Congress in 1996, then-Rep. 'I strongly support what the Supreme Court did,' Sanders said when asked about the June 26 ruling during an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's 'State of the Union.' Supreme Court last month correctly ruled that that there is a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states. DES MOINES – Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a long-time advocate for gay rights, said on Sunday that the U.S.
