Equality, Equality Now-- Isn't That What Differentiates Democrats From Republicans?

Reid needs someone to sponsor the abrogation of Don't Ask Don't Tell? Let's elect Jennifer Brunner in Ohio

In a whiny excuse for inaction, Harry Reid said yesterday there is no sponsor for getting rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell in the Senate. He suggests the White House do it-- or the House. Oh, really? No Kirsten Gillibrand? No Barbara Boxer? No Chuck Schumer? All three are up for re-election-- and the first two can't be re-elected without gay support. Democrats in office have taken gay voters for granted too long.

Today's NY Times castigates the Obama Administration for another Bush-like response over gay rights. Democrats are playing a dangerous game. When gays like someone they stick with them forever-- look at Cher and Lisa Minelli-- and when they turn... it is over.

The Obama administration, which came to office promising to protect gay rights but so far has not done much, actually struck a blow for the other side last week. It submitted a disturbing brief in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, which is the law that protects the right of states to not recognize same-sex marriages and denies same-sex married couples federal benefits. The administration needs a new direction on gay rights.

...In the presidential campaign, President Obama declared that he would work to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Now, the administration appears to be defending it out of a sense of obligation to support a validly enacted Congressional law. There is a strong presumption that the Justice Department will defend federal laws, but it is not an inviolable rule... In a letter to President Obama on Monday, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, said, “I cannot overstate the pain that we feel as human beings and as families when we read an argument, presented in federal court, implying that our own marriages have no more constitutional standing than incestuous ones.”

The brief also maintains that the Defense of Marriage Act represents a “cautious policy of federal neutrality”-- an odd assertion since the law clearly discriminates against gay couples. Under the act, same-sex married couples who pay their taxes are ineligible for the sort of federal benefits-- such as Social Security survivors’ payments and joint tax returns-- that heterosexual married couples receive.

President Obama has talked about the fact that when his black father and white mother got married, in half the states in the U.S. that marriage was illegal. Yes, until the Supreme Court threw out all the state's "miscegenation laws" in 1964-- a result of Loving v Virginia (something we've looked at before in relation to the release of Nanci Griffith's new album, The Loving Kind)-- interracial marriage was prohibited in many states. Had the federal government not overturned those archaic, discriminatory laws in 1964, it's unlikely that Obama would be president today.

As John Aravosis pointed out yesterday, gay donors are bailing on a $1,000 a head DNC gay fundraising dinner scheduled for June 25 honoring Joe Biden. Instead of writing $1,000 checks, rich Democrats should be standing outside the Mandarin Oriental with protest signs. Funny that Rahm Emanuel's Frankenstein Supplemental bill-- which contains a little something for everyone, from used car salesmen and parents worried about their children catching the flu to crooked European banksters looking for a bailout-- didn't include a Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal. That would have been the way to pass it.

Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, states unequivocally that she will sponsor the bill when she's elected to the Senate next year. Her record on gay equality bears out her promise.

“’Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ has outlived its usefulness. It may have been a first step to inclusiveness in the military, but it has proved to be another ‘separate but equal’ concept that is used to exclude those who understand that forced silence is demeaning and unacceptable. It’s time to allow people to be free to speak of who they are, to respect them and allow them to be fully a part of the community that will move us forward through the coming social and economic change.”

Forget that $1,000 check for the DNC and donate to Jennifer Brunner's campaign instead.



UPDATE: Reid Says "Oops"

He say he meant that... whatever he didn't say yesterday. I tried getting answers out of senators who are up for re-election in 2010 and who get substantial support from gay people. They all said teh same thing: "No comment." Bright side of the coin: this'll be the first time ever that I don't have to write a check to Barbara Boxer. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign did the right thing and pulled out of the Biden DNC dinner; others followed.

I spoke with Barney Frank's office and was told that Barney isn't concerned because he was completely confident that there would be a Senate sponsor but that right now Congress is concentrating on passing ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act). I wish I was as confident as he appears to be. I don't think this has been publicly announced anywhere but Barney rounded up 7 co-sponors, besides himself: Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jared Polis (D-CO), Rob Andrews (D-NJ), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Mike Castle (R-DE) and Mark Kirk (R-IL). I wonder if he asked any of the homophobic GOP closet cases like Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Aaron Schock (R-IL), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) or Adrian Smith (R-NE) to co-sponsor. I forgot to ask. ENDA hearing in July.


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