Civil Rights Act Should Include Gays, Bradley Says

WASHINGTON — Gays should be protected by the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act and allowed to serve openly in the military, Bill Bradley said in a magazine interview released Thursday.

On the question of a California anti-gay-marriage initiative, Bradley also aligned himself more closely--and more readily--with the gay community’s legislative agenda than has Vice President Al Gore. Both Democratic presidential candidates are dueling for the influential gay and lesbian vote.

“If I was a voter in California, I would not support the Knight initiative,” a measure sponsored by state Sen. William “Pete” Knight(R-Palmdale) that would define marriage as between a man and a woman only, Bradley told The Advocate, a gay and lesbian newsmagazine, in a published interview due on newsstands Sept. 28.

“I think it’s divisive, and . . . I don’t think a referendum is the place for this kind of an initiative.”

The former New Jersey senator said he nonetheless opposes same-sex marriage because of “the religious nature of marriage and respect for the diversity of views on that subject.”

In a separate interview published last month, Gore told The Advocate he needed to “educate” himself on the so-called Knight measure, which is on California’s ballot in March. His campaign press secretary, Kikki Moore, said late Thursday that Gore has decided to oppose Knight. “Consider him educated,” she said.

Both Bradley and Gore support legal protections for “domestic partners.”

Going further than Gore’s support for a pending federal anti-job-discrimination bill, Bradley said he would add sexual orientation to the 1964 act broadly outlawing racial, religious and sex discrimination in employment, housing, lending and public accommodations.

Bradley said homosexuals should be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces but admitted that he has not determined “the timing and method” of such a change to military policy.

In 1993, before President Clinton signed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy allowing gays to serve as long as their sexuality remains a secret, Bradley voted for a Senate amendment to lift outright the military’s ban on gays and lesbians.

Gore, in this campaign season, has said only that “don’t ask, don’t tell” should be implemented with “more compassion.”

Bradley’s position “clearly represents a different, more positive thinking than the vice president’s,” said David Smith, spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, the na

On the full menu of gay issues, Bradley and Gore have virtually identical records, but Gore has trumped Bradley in “energy and commitment,” Smith said.

“Senator Bradley comes off as ambivalent at best. But these statements in this article certainly send the right message and I’m sure it will cause several potential voters to perhaps look more closely at his candidacy.”

In 1996 exit polls, self-identified gay voters accounted for 5 percent of the total voting public, and 7 percent of Clinton’s support.