Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, champion of 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal, dead at 82

Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, who helped repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” died Wednesday of complications from a fall. He was 82.

Lieberman ran for vice president as Al Gore’s running mate in 2000, making him the first Jewish candidate on any major-party presidential ticket. He was a moderate Democrat for years but eventually became an independent and cochaired the No Labels movement, which advocates bipartisanship.

“Mr. Lieberman viewed himself as a centrist Democrat, solidly in his party’s mainstream with his support of abortion rights, environmental protection, gay rights and gun control,” The Washington Postnotes in its obituary. “But he was also unafraid to stray from Democratic orthodoxy, most notably in his consistently hawkish stands on foreign policy.”

In his record on LGBTQ+ rights, he was a leading cosponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would have banned anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in the workplace; it never became law and has now been superseded by the more sweeping (and still-pending) Equality Act. He supported inclusive hate-crimes legislation and increased funding to fight AIDS.

Perhaps most notably, his efforts were key to repealing DADT. In 2010, he and moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins introduced a stand-alone bill to end the discriminatory policy, which passed after the Senate had rejected repeal as part of a defense funding bill. The House passed an identical bill, and President Barack Obama signed the measure into law. The Human Rights Campaign praised Lieberman’s “exceptional leadership” on the issue. Over the years, he received high ratings on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard.

LGBTQ+ and progressive activists had some reservations about Lieberman earlier in his career, including when he became Gore’s running mate. He had voted to bar HIV-positive immigrants from entering the U.S. and had opposed domestic-partner benefits for public employees in Washington, D.C. (Congress had some authority over city policies), as The Advocate noted in 2000. Later, however, he sponsored a bill to provide these benefits to federal employees. As an Orthodox Jew, he sometimes allied with conservative Christians, although he avoided the most homophobic positions of the religious right.

Lieberman entered politics as a state senator in his native Connecticut, winning his first election in 1970. He was elected Connecticut’s attorney general in 1982, then won election as a U.S. senator from the state in 1988, beating incumbent Lowell Weicker, a Republican who was more liberal than many Democrats.

In the Senate, he generally took typical Democratic positions, but a major break came when he supported Republican President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, which many Democrats opposed. He made a failed run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, then lost the Democratic primary for Senate in 2006 to Ned Lamont, who’s now Connecticut’s governor. He rebounded by running as an independent in the general election and kept his Senate seat. He retired after deciding not to seek reelection in 2012.

He also broke with the Democrats in supporting Republican John McCain for president in 2008, saying Obama, then in his first presidential bid, was not ready to hold the office. However, Obama won, and Lieberman went on to support some of the signature achievements of his presidency, such as the DADT repeal and the Affordable Care Act. More recently, he backed Democrats Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in their respective presidential runs.

David Stacy, the HRC’s vice president, government affairs, issued a statement of tribute to Lieberman: “Senator Lieberman was not simply the lead Senate sponsor of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — he was its champion, working tirelessly to allow lesbian, gay, and bisexual people to serve in the military as their authentic selves. The nation’s first Jewish Vice-Presidential nominee, Lieberman had a historic career and his unwavering support for lesbian, gay, and bisexual military servicemembers is a powerful legacy. Our hearts go out to his family and friends as they grieve a tremendous loss.”