Chelsea Clinton has said she is proud
of her father, former president Bill Clinton, for supporting gay
marriage.
In a profile with fashion glossy Vogue,
Chelsea credited her friendships with gay men as influencing her
famous father on the issue.
“One night, over dinner at Cheddar's,
Chelsea mentions that a lot of her male friends are gay. 'It was
something that I wasn't even aware of until [husband] Marc pointed it
out,' she says. Observing the strength of those friendships – many
of Chelsea's friends spend every Thanksgiving with the Clintons at
Chappaqua – was one of the key factors in changing Bill Clinton's
position on gay marriage. 'Those conversations often start in
families and then billow out into the community. Change is hard.
And I was really proud of my dad,'” the
magazine wrote.
In 2009, Bill Clinton, who signed into
law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), said his previous position on
the issue was “wrong.”
“I think [gay marriage is] a good
thing not a bad thing. And I just realized that, I was, probably
for, maybe just because of my age and the way I've grown up, I was
wrong about that.”
“I just had too may gay friends. I
saw their relationships. I just decided I couldn't, I had an
untenable position,” he
told CNN's Anderson Cooper.