Obama’s view on DOMA a mystery

Obama’s view on the constitutionality of DOMA is not known by his press secretary.

Culhane: Obama’s LGBT report card

At a recent fund-raiser for Senator Barbara Boxer, Obama was heckled [1] on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and some think this isn’t such a bad thing. Even though Boxer is one of our biggest supporters, the protesters’ sentiment captures a frustration many in the LGBT community feel over Obama’s record on our issues.

But is the frustration justified? How, more than a full year into his Administration, should our community grade the President on his performance so far? Speaking from my legal perspective, I’d give him a passing grade (B-, maybe).

This may seem startling to some that I would pass him at all, because very little of the legislation he promised has been enacted. From a candidate who courted the LGBT community on issues ranging from DADT, to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, to the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, we’ve gotten nothing on those issues to date. ENDA may not have the votes in the Senate to pass DADT repeal seems like a moving target, and DOMA’s not even on the radar screen.

We have only hate crimes law, hardly a major victory. Worse, Obama has spent little of his political capital pushing for any of these goals.

So why the B-? It sounds like a “D” would be more appropriate.

But this overlooks the limits of Presidential power to enact legislation. It’s obvious but easy to forget that the President has no power to actually pass any laws. True, Presidents do suggest legislation that they want to see enacted, but they have only the “bully pulpit” of office to make anything happen. And one thing we’ve learned about Obama is that he’s reluctant to use that pulpit to talk directly to the people in support of his agenda. His passionate advocacy for the health care reform bill is the exception that proves the rule.

Of course, Obama could and should use the fact that his party substantially controls both houses of Congress to urge action on these bills, but given the way the filibuster has metastasized into an every-vote thing, he needs all of the Democrats and now at least one Republican for anything to clear the paralyzed Senate. So what can or should he do?

Let me quickly dispel any suggestion that I’m giving the President a pass on any of this. He could and should be trying to do more, especially on DADT where the Administration’s public pronouncements have been harder to chart than the course of a mosquito.

Saying in response to hecklers that he supports the policy’s repeal just won’t cut it any more. And the protesters deserve our gratitude for calling Obama on what Andrew Sullivan has called “the fierce urgency of whenever.” [2]

Yet legislative inaction isn’t the whole story. We should look at what Obama is doing in areas where he can effect change without Congress. Here I’m talking about the vast body of law – including administrative matters and the interpretation and enforcement of legislation – that’s under the control of the Executive Branch. And here, with at least one glaring exception, he’s done much better.

Let’s start with the exception: In defending DOMA against a lawsuit last year, Obama’s Department of Justice wrote a needlessly offensive brief [3] that, as I wrote at the time, “seemed to have been intended to set the course of judicial progress on gay rights back many years.” I was hardly the only blogger to go ballistic over the brief, and then…things got better. A later brief in the case expressly disavowed the argument that children did better in homes headed by opposite-sex parents [4] than in our homes.

Then there was another encouraging performance by the DOJ in a recent bullying case. [5] The Administration took an aggressive and unsettled legal position, arguing that Title IX (the federal law that protects against gender discrimination in education) also covers discrimination based on gender stereotyping.

From the administrative law standpoint, there have been a few other encouraging moves: putting into place long-awaited rules that lifted the HIV immigration restriction; the very recent directive to the Department of Health and Human Services to honor hospital patients’ visitation wishes (in a memorandum that expressly cited the problems of gay and lesbian couples); a memorandum that extended some limited benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees; and the recent announcement that DADT will now be enforced more “humanely.” None of these actions require acts of Congress, and Obama has at times stepped smartly into this breach.

Should any of us be satisfied if Obama’s (first? only?) term ends with a few more administrative moves, but no additional legislation? No. He has to deliver what he promised, whatever the obstacles. We have to demand results. Above, I gave him a passing (probably inflated) grade on his performance so far.

But the more precise assessment is: ”Incomplete.”

John Culhane is Professor of Law and Director of the Health Law Institute at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware. He blogs about the role of law in everyday life, and about a bunch of other things (LGBT rights, public health, biology, sports, pop culture, philosophy and lots of personal stuff) at http://wordinedgewise.org [6]A fuller bio is here [7]. Starting next Tuesday, he will be blogging the week-long Equality Forum [8] from Philadelphia.

[1] http://www.365gay.com/blog/withers-protestors-interrupt-obama-at-fundraiser/
[2] http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/the-fierce-urgency-of-whenever.html
[3] http://wordinedgewise.org/?p=128
[4] http://wordinedgewise.org/?p=300
[5] http://www.365gay.com/news/culhane-how-to-stop-gay-bullying/
[6] http://wordinedgewise.org/
[7] http://law.widener.edu/Academics/Faculty/ProfilesDe/CulhaneJohnG.aspx
[8] http://equalityforum.com/

Nadler: No DOMA repeal until 2011

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the DOMA’s go-to guy in the House, said repeal won’t happen in 2010.

HRC to lobby on DOMA

HRC is planning to deliver to Congress a survey of 50,000 gays and lesbians on DOMA’s effects.

Vanasco: LGBT champion announces run for Kennedy seat

Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley, who filed the lawsuit against the federal government claiming that DOMA is discriminatory against gays and lesbians, announced Thursday she will run in the special election for late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat.

From Change.org:

In July 2009, Coakley filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government challenging the …

Obama statement on DOMA

From the White House:

Statement by the President on the Smelt v. United States Brief

Today, the Department of Justice has filed a response to a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, as it traditionally does when acts of Congress are challenged. This brief makes clear, …

Equality California statement on DOMA

From Equality California:

Today the Obama Administration filed court papers saying the Defense of Marriage Act does discriminate against same-sex couples, but the Justice Department is continuing to defend the law that prevents married same-sex couples from having their unions recognized by the federal government.

In response, Equality California Executive Director …

Human Rights Campaign Calls on the LGBT Community and Allies to Participate in National, Grassroots Push to Lobby Congress Face-to-Face

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today launched a national, grassroots campaign called “No Excuses” to demand action from Congress on key issues of equality. Designed to take advantage of the congressional summer recess, when members are in their local offices and meeting with constituents, “No Excuses” will mobilize HRC’s 750,000 members and their allies to meet directly with lawmakers and push for federal legislative change. Members and supporters can get involved by visiting: http://noexcuses.hrc.org.

“While we salute and acknowledge the heroic members of Congress who have worked tirelessly on our behalf, far too many have dragged their feet on basic matters of fairness and equality that have lingered too long and hurt too many LGBT people and their families,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Yes, there are many challenges facing this Congress and this president. But LGBT people often face additional hardship protecting their families, their loved ones and their jobs, and too few in Congress are willing to champion these issues of basic fairness. Now, more than ever, members of the LGBT community need to make their voices heard face-to-face and in the districts where they live.”

Using innovative online tools, one-on-one trainings and staff and volunteer follow-through, HRC members will press lawmakers to end discrimination in the military, treat all legally married couples equally, pass immigration reform that recognizes and honors LGBT families, outlaw workplace discrimination for LGBT employees, and treat all federal employees’ compensation equally.

The interactive “No Excuses” website allows supporters to download a meeting toolkit, schedule a meeting and report back on how it went. To take action, visit: http://noexcuses.hrc.org.

The in-district meetings will focus on the following key legislative priorities in the 111th Congress:

–Repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denies legally married lesbian and gay couples more than 1,000 federal protections;

–Prohibit workplace discrimination for the LGBT community by passing an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA);

–Repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to ensure that service members who contribute to our nation’s security are no longer summarily discharged for who they are;

–Pass immigration reform that recognizes permanent same-sex couples and ends the painful separation of families;

–And provide health benefits equally to the nearly 3 million federal government employees, including same-sex domestic partners.

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/human-rights-…

Another “DOMA GOP” politican has zipper trouble: Sen. Paul Stanley Caught in Sex Scandal

Well, it was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? According to authorities, one of our own social conservative Republicans has been caught cheating on his wife, and he was doing it with a young legislative intern. At this juncture, we’re going to resist the temptation to make a joke about family values. That’s getting so old it’s not funny anymore.

Suffice it to say that like John Ensign, Mark Sanford and all the rest on the national stage lately, this one is really rich–with a little homemade porn and a bumbling blackmailer tossed into the story to make it even spicier. Ensnared in Tennessee’s own sex scandal tonight is Sen. Paul Stanley, the wingnut from Germantown who has crusaded to ban gay adoption of children and who once made the really stupid mistake of saying: “When you’re married, there’s a commitment there.”

According to court documents, here’s what happened: Stanley, who is married with two children, was having an affair with his 22-year-old legislative intern, McKensie Morrison. Morrison’s boyfriend, Joel Palmer Watts. 28, discovered a computer memory disc with sexually explicit photographs of Morrison that appeared to have been taken in Stanley’s apartment. Watts then blackmailed Stanley, demanding $10,000 in return for keeping quiet about the senator’s relationship with his intern.

See Sen. Paul Stanley Caught in Sex Scandal

Nashville Scene

* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/another-doma-…

Lesbian albatrosses and bisexual bonobos have last laugh on Darwin

Charles Darwin argued that sexual preferences can shape the progress of evolution, creating displays, such as the peacock’s tail, that are inexplicable by natural selection alone.

It’s safe to say, however, that he did not anticipate the lesbian albatrosses of Hawaii. Nor bisexual bonobos. Let alone sadomasochistic bat bugs or the gay penguins of New York.

Homosexuality is so widespread among some animal species that it can reshape their social dynamics and even change their DNA, according to the first peer-reviewed survey of research on the subject.

From mammals to snails, and even nematode worms, homosexual behaviour is almost universal across the animal kingdom, and Californian scientists argue that it should be considered a selective force in its own right.

“The variety and ubiquity of same-sex sexual behaviour in animals is impressive — many thousands of instances of same-sex courtship, pair bonding and copulation have been observed in a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, molluscs and nematodes,” write Nathan Bailey and Marlene Zuk of the University of California, Riverside.

Animals engage in same-sex activity for a variety of reasons, ranging from the need for an alternative child-rearing strategy to mistaken identity. “Male fruit flies may court other males because they are lacking a gene that enables them to discriminate between the sexes,” Dr Bailey said.

“But that is different from male bottlenose dolphins, who engage in same-sex interactions to facilitate group bonding, or female Laysan albatrosses that can remain pair-bonded for life and co-operatively rear young.”

See