MOMocrats Guest Post from Lezzymom: Obama’s Bread Crumbs to Gays – Benefits for Federal Employees

Kathy from Lezzymom.com is an LGBT rights activist in Arizona where she lives with her partner and two children. She is a Board of Governors member for the Human Rights Campaign and helped start the first Gay-Straight Alliance in Arizona. Her political commentary appeared on C-Span and C-Span.com.

Here are her thoughts on the Obama administration's recent treatment of gay and lesbian rights, including the recently released controversial Department of Justice Defense of Marriage brief, Obama's inaction on Don't Ask Don't Tell, and today's planned presidential memorandum extending certain benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.

Today President Obama is going to sign a memorandum extending some benefits to federal employees. In a statement from the White House, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management and the Secretary of State have identified a number of benefits that can be extended to same-sex partners of federal employees:

For civil service employees, domestic partners of federal employees can be added to the long-term care insurance program; supervisors can also be required to allow employees to use their sick leave to take care of domestic partners and non-biological, non-adopted children.  For foreign service employees, a number of benefits were identified, including the use of medical facilities at posts abroad, medical evacuation from posts abroad, and inclusion in family size for housing allocations.

The Presidential Memorandum to be signed today will request that the Director of OPM and the Secretary of State act to extend to same-sex partners of federal employees the benefits they have identified.  The Memorandum will also request the heads of all other executive branch departments and agencies to conduct internal reviews to determine whether other benefits they administer might be similarly extended, and to report the results of those reviews to the Director of OPM.

This move comes after many in the LGBT community are frustrated with their supposed “Fierce Advocate” in the White House staying in the closet on many of their issues. Obama made many campaign promises to the LGBT community – repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, repeal of DOMA, Hate Crimes, inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act and more. Yet his lack of action or even comment on many of these issues has made many wonder if the LGBT community has time warped back to the Clinton era. We are not ready to be thrown under the bus again.

Late last week the Department of Justice submitted a homophobic brief in a Defense of Marriage Act case that seems to have been the final straw. In the brief, the DOJ compares same-sex marriages to incest and underage marriage. That action caused many big time fundraisers, including the Human Rights Campaign, to pull out of a DNC event that features Vice President Joe Biden. With openly gay Representatives Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank publicly stating their disappointment in the brief President Obama was really feeling the pressure. Apparently, the Fierce Advocate thought, “If the gays are going to keep their money then I guess I better throw them some crumbs.” So, federal employees will get some benefits, something that could have been done at anytime but was saved to bail himself out of trouble with the LGBT community.

Unfortunately, I think this action is too little too late. It’s all going to come down to how it’s presented. If the signing is public and not behind closed doors and the President makes strong statements it could light a fire under Congress and give them the kick they need to move the LGBT issues through. The LGBT community understands that the President inherited a HUGE mess from the previous administration. There are many important issues that affect ALL Americans that must be taken care of. But when 253 service members have been discharged under DADT since Obama took office and he can issue a stop loss order at anytime, the LGBT community wonders when Obama will come out of the closet and stand up for us. We will not be thrown under the bus again and we will not settle for bread crumbs from this President.

Comments

[Deb on the Rocks]

Love the graphic. I'm able to hold on for change...breadcrumbs are better than poison, after all, but I'm ready for some protein and an equal share. Someday, a cupcake would be a crazy luxury eventually, too.

(Lezzymom, you are the real L Word. You are my hero!)

[Dana]

Well, the good news followup to this is that the signing was public, and Obama made his first public call as president for repeal of DOMA. The bad news is that the benefits just given to federal workers don't include health benefits. Crumbs indeed, then--although Obama's argument is that he is not legally able to extend more benefits than he just has. Now it's up to Congress to do the rest. That may be true (and I'm not a lawyer, so I can't say), but Obama should step up and pressure Congress to act. He may have no legal clout there, but he has emotional clout. That's what leadership is about.

My further take on this (with a reminder on who our real opponents are here) at: http://www.mombian.com/2009/06/17/swing-high-swing-low/