| The house is on fire and out comes the thimble of H20 to try to put it out. You were waiting for the official White House response to the flaming pile of crap that is the DOMA brief, well here it is. The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld spoke with the director of the Office of Personnel Management, John Berry, who is the highest ranking LGBT official in the Obama administration. He told Kerry that he cleared his comments with the WH; these include:
* There was no backroom deal with the LGBT advocacy orgs. "We are working in partnership with all LGBT groups, and all groups are doing what they should be doing, which is passionately representing their unique interests."
* They are going to try to eliminate discrimination for federal workers (to add transfolk, since gay workers are covered). Exactly how is this going to happen?
* There will be a "significant announcement" soon regarding equal benefits provided to other federal employees for LGBTs. [W]e want to make sure that we get the benefits for the LGBT community that are equal to all other benefits provided to other federal employees, and where we have the authority to move forward, the president is going to be announcing something in the very near future that is going to be a very significant announcement in that regard. Where it requires legislation, we will seek and support it. Well, since there's a snowball's chance in hell anything will pass due to "leadership" by Pelosi and Reid, it's rose-colored-glasses material.
* OK, here's "the plan" from Berry: We have four broad legislative goals that we want to accomplish and legislation is one of these things where you've got to move when the opportunity strikes, so I'm going to list them in an order but it's not necessarily going to go one, two, three, four. Obviously, I think the first opportunity is hate crimes and we're hopeful that we can get that passed this week. We're going to try, but if not, we're going to keep at it until we get it passed. The second one ENDA, we want to secure that passage of ENDA, and third is we want to repeal legislatively "don't ask don't tell," and fourth, we want to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
Now, I'm not going to pledge -- and nor is the president -- that this is going to be done by some certain date. Doesn't it seem interesting that suddenly hate crimes is being pushed up the food chain pronto? I wonder why. I'm still agog that they think ENDA is an easier sell that DADT. Can anyone tell me why they think that Congress is ready to battle, for instance, Lou Sheldon and his bathroom hysteria propaganda as opposed to the discredited Elaine Donnelly? And as far as a date is concerned, no one asked for a date to pass anything, but a plan, and how the WH plans to work with Pelosi and Reid to find some votes, because they certainly haven't acted like anyone should be lobbying their Congresspeeps.
Now here you go folks -- Berry's word from the WH re: DOMA. We report, you decide. Finally, I want to talk to you about the DOMA brief. Our strongest argument against "don't ask, don't tell" is that we stand with the truth. And that we, more than anyone, know the cost of lying and the terrible pain it invokes.
This president took a solemn oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and he does not get to decide and choose which laws he enforces. He has to enforce the laws that have been enacted appropriately and that he has inherited. It would be wrong for me or any of our community to advise him to lie or to shirk his responsibility. He's doing his job. He has made clear that he stands for the repeal of DOMA. It will be part of this administration's agenda to accomplish that act. We ought not waste energy and angst attacking him when we should be focusing the energy and effort on getting 218 votes in the house and 60 votes in the Senate, and that's where we ought to target the energy and the strength of this community and this president is with us, this is our agenda and it's his agenda. This is sad, people. The administration trots out John Berry, who clearly means well, to deliver the same lie about "having to uphold DOMA" that Richard Socarides debunked earlier today -- the administration had a choice. This is a mess, a bit fat FAIL in response to some serious heat being generated over this. Honestly, White House folks, didn't you all learn that the cover up is as bad or worse than the crime?
Go read the rest of Kerry's interview and come back and comment.
I will say one thing -- obviously the White House knows it has to do damage control, something it has seemed to think it was above when it came to thumbing its nose at the LGBT community. You are being listened to. Probably still dismissed, but they know they have to do something. So far, just not the right thing.  1.Full civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals must be enacted now. Delay and excuses are no longer acceptable.
2.We will not leave any part of our community behind.
3.Separate is never equal.
4.Religious beliefs are not a basis upon which to affirm or deny civil rights.
5.The establishment and guardianship of full civil rights is a non-partisan issue.
6.Individual involvement and grassroots action are paramount to success and must be encouraged.
7.Success is measured by the civil rights we all achieve, not by words, access or money raised.
8.Those who seek our support are expected to commit to these principles.
Related:
* Top gay in the administration says ENDA, DADT, and DOMA have no chance at this point (and then he lies, to boot) |
