Obama Group Helps Push Marriage Equality in Illinois

Organizing for Action, which grew out of the president’s reelection campaign, is working to generate support for the cause in Illinois.

BY TRUDY RING

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Organizing for Action, a group that grew out of President Obama’s reelection campaign as a means to advance his legislative agenda, is assisting in the fight for marriage equality in Illinois.

“We’ve heard from OFA supporters here in Illinois that this issue matters to you, and that’s why we’re teaming up with Illinois Unites for Marriage —a joint project of ACLU Illinois, Equality Illinois, and Lambda Legal — to add our voices to this fight,” Lindsay Siler, OFA’s national director of issue campaigns, wrote in an e-mail sent Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The group had been formed primarily to generate support for Obama’s legislative priorities in Congress, but its leaders said at the outset that it would get involved in state and local matters as well, the Tribune notes. The national group Freedom to Marry reportedly asked OFA to help push the Illinois bill, which has been passed by the state House of Representatives but awaits a vote by the Senate. Illinois marriage equality backers welcomed the assistance. “I think this will remind people that the president of the United States changed his mind on marriage,” Rep. Greg Harris, chief sponsor of the legislation in the House, told the Tribune. “I’m so glad that he’s changed his mind. It’s what a lot of people are doing.”

Gay blogger John Aravosis termed the OFA involvement “important symbolically and substantively” in a Wednesday post on AmericaBlog. “It matters that an organization created … by President Obama is fighting for gay marriage in a state where black voters are being barraged with anti-gay messages,” he wrote.

The Tribune notes that these messages include automated calls by former state senator James Meeks, the pastor of a largely black megachurch, and radio ads by a group of African-American clergy members. Illinoisans “are going to listen to all sides” on the issue, Harris told the paper, but he thinks “they are going to come to the same conclusion the majority of Americans have in that this is the fair thing for government to do — to treat all people equally.”

Obama signs LGBT-inclusive domestic violence bill

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President Obama signed into law an LGBT-inclusive reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

President Obama signed into law an LGBT-inclusive reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Flanked by lawmakers and women’s rights advocates, President Obama on Thursday afternoon signed into law LGBT-inclusive legislation aimed at combating domestic violence and helping its victims. Obama signed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act during a ceremony in the auditorium of the Department of the Interior, concluding the signing by saying, “There you go, everybody!”

The law reauthorizes the 1994 anti-domestic violence measure written by Vice President Biden, which provides funding for the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes crimes against women as well as funding for victims assistance services. Additionally, the reauthorization institutes new provisions to help more victims of domestic violence, such as those in the LGBT community and individuals in Native American tribes.

Click the header link above to read the full article.

Obama Asks Supreme Court to Invalidate Prop. 8

The Obama administration filed a friend of the court brief today asking the Supreme Court to overturn California’s Proposition 8.

BY SUNNIVIE BRYDUM

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President Obama met today’s deadline and filed a “friend of the court” brief with the Supreme Court as it considers whether to overturn Proposition 8. The administration already filed a brief opposing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, but the administration waited until the last day possible to file an amicus brief opposing California’s Prop. 8, which revoked marriage equality by popular vote in 2008. Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement as the adminstration filed its brief. “In our filing today in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the government seeks to vindicate the defining constitutional ideal of equal treatment under the law,” said Holder. “Throughout history, we have seen the unjust consequences of decisions and policies rooted in discrimination. The issues before the Supreme Court in this case and the Defense of Marriage Act case are not just important to the tens of thousands Americans who are being denied equal benefits and rights under our laws, but to our Nation as a whole.”

In its brief, the Obama administration argues that Prop. 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and says that LGBT people should be subject to heightened scrutiny, as are issues concerning other immutable characteristics like race, sex, or national origin. The administration’s brief also plainly rejects arguments made by Prop. 8 proponents claiming that marriage equality should be decided by a popular vote. “Use of a voter initiative to promote democratic self-governance cannot save a law like Proposition 8 that would otherwise violate equal protection,” reads the brief.

The brief goes on to deconstruct additional antigay arguments in favor of Prop. 8, including the allegation that “traditional marriage” should be preserved, and the highly effective scare-tactic that marriage equality would lead to children being taught about gay sex in schools. 

“First, preserving a tradition of limiting marriage to heterosexuals is not itself a sufficiently important interest to justify Proposition 8,” reads the brief. “Second, protecting children from being taught about same-sex marriage is not a permissible interest insofar as it rests on a moral judgment about gay and lesbian people or their intimate relationships.”

The brief also tackles the red herring that civil unions or domestic partnerships are equivalent to marriage, even when they include identical rights and privileges. It reads: “The designation of marriage…confers a special validation of the relationship between two individuals and conveys a message to society that domestic partnerships or civil unions cannot match.”

The administration’s brief directly addresses Prop. 8 proponents’ legal argument that heterosexual marriage must be “protected” because only opposite-sex couples can result in “unintended pregnancies.” 

“Marriage is far more than a societal means of dealing with unintended pregnancies,” reads the brief. “Even assuming, counterfactually, that the point of Proposition 8 was to account for accidental offspring by opposite-sex couples, its denial of the right to marry to same-sex couples does not substantially further that interest.”

The administration argues that the issue of same-sex marriage is important to the federal government, especially in light of the Department of Justice’s participation in U.S. v. Windsor, the case currently before the Supreme Court challenging the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. The Obama administration announced it would stop defending that law in court in 2011, and filed an amicus brief in the case in February. Other last-minute filers include conservative actor Clint Eastwood and more than 100 Republicans who asked the Supreme Court to affirm the legal ability of gay and lesbian couples to wed. The list of Republicans includes former Utah governor Jon Hunstman, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, who supported Prop. 8 when she ran for governor of California. 

The American Sociological Association also filed a brief today supporting marriage equality, highlighting social science that indicates children raised by same-sex parents are just as well-adjusted, healthy, and likely to succeed as those raised by opposite-sex parents. 

“When the social science evidence is exhaustively examined — which the ASA has done — the facts demonstrate that children fare just as well when raised by same-sex parents,” states the ASA amicus brief. “Unsubstantiated fears regarding same-sex child rearing do not overcome these facts and do not justify upholding DOMA and Proposition 8.”

Building upon evidence that the country is rapidly evolving in its stance on marriage equality, a Field poll reported by The Sacramento Bee found that 61% of Californians now support marriage equality — an overall increase of ten percentage points since Californians approved Prop. 8. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on two cases relating to marriage equality in late March. Perry v. Hollingsworth challenges the constitutionality of California’s voter-approved revocation of marriage equality, and U.S. v. Windsor challenges section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which forbids federal agencies from recognizing legally married same-sex couples as spouses for the purposes of taxation and benefits.

WATCH: Remembering Gay Pianist Van Cliburn

The American-born pianist became a beacon for positive U.S.-Soviet relations when he won first place at a Soviet Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow in 1958.

BY SUNNIVIE BRYDUM

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President Obama awarded Van Cliburn the 2010 National Medal of the Arts in March 2011 at the White House. 

World-renowned classical pianist and Cold War envoy Van Cliburn died Wednesday after a battle with bone cancer. The American-born pianist was 78. Cliburn became an international sensation after he won first place at the 1958 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, a literal and symbolic victory during the a time when the space race and the Cold War were accelerating tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. 

An exhaustive obituary in The New York Times says Cliburn was “discreet in his homosexuality,” and also mentions that Cliburn is survived by Thomas L. Smith, “with whom he shared his home for many years.”

Click the header link above to watch the video.

President Honors Late PFLAG Founder With Citizens Medal

By Zack Ford 

Today, President Obama awarded the Presidential Citizens Medals to several recipients, among whom was the late Jeanne Manford, who publicly defended her gay son and founded Parents, Friends, & Family of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) to advocate for other gay sons. Here is what Obama said about her in his remarks:

When Jeanne Manford learned that her son Morty had been badly beaten up at a gay rights demonstration, nobody would have faulted her for bringing him home, holding him close, just focusing on her child.  This was back in 1972.  There was a lot of hate, a lot of vitriol towards gays and lesbians and anyone who supported them.  But instead, she wrote to the local newspaper and took to the streets with a simple message: No matter who her son was — no matter who he loved –- she loved him, and wouldn’t put up with this kind of nonsense.  And in that simple act, she inspired a movement and gave rise to a national organization that has given so much support to parents and families and friends, and helped to change this country.  We lost Jeanne last month, but her legacy carries on, every day, in the countless lives that she touched. […]

Accepting on behalf of Jeanne Manford, her daughter Suzanne Swan.  (Applause.)  In an era when peaceful protests were met with violence and coming out was a radical act, Jeanne Manford knew she had to stand by her son, Morty.  Side-by-side, they marched proudly down the streets of New York on Stonewall’s anniversary, calling upon other parents of gay and lesbian Americans to show their children the same love and acceptance.  Jeanne’s courage lives on in progress she fought for and in PFLAG, the organization she founded, which today claims more than 200,000 members and supporters in over 350 chapters.  For insisting that equality knows no bounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, the United States honors Jeanne Manford.  (Applause.)

The Presidential Citizens Medal is the second highest civilian award, second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

State of the Union: What It Meant for LGBT Americans

LGBT Americans were mentioned more than once during the State of the Union address, but activists might still be disappointed.

BY LUCAS GRINDLEY

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President Obama on Tuesday

LGBT activists held a lengthy wish list of policy changes they hoped the president would support in his State of the Union address. The 2013 agenda that Barack Obama outlined on Tuesday included only some of them, and without clear requests to Congress. Activists including the Human Rights Campaign had recently ramped up calls for the president to sign an executive order banning employment discrimination among federal contractors. Obama had argued that only passage of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act could really protect LGBT workers. But neither policy change got a direct mention among the 2013 agenda. The president came closest early in the speech while outlining a broad principle. ”It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country,” he said, “the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love.”

Minutes after the speech, activists were quick to point out that Americans can’t “get ahead” no matter who they love. “Right now, this simply isn’t possible,” said Rea Carey, executive director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in a statement. “LGBT people remain acutely vulnerable in the workplace and on economic issues. Too many of us still head to work each day terrified it may be our last, simply because of who we are or who we love.”

On some issues, the president was vague about LGBT inclusion. He called for the House to follow the Senate’s lead and pass a domestic violence bill, for example. The version that actually passed the Senate was inclusive of services for gay and lesbian survivors of domestic violence but that could be stripped out by House Republicans. The president called for “comprehensive” immigration reform without reiterating his call for including aprovision that ends discrimination against same-sex binational couples. It would have been an important statement because Republican senators, including John McCain, have said that including gays and lesbians would scuttle the entire bill. The State of the Union address is always one of the president’s best chances to reach Americans, and in each of his last three speeches, Obama mentioned LGBT people only in connection with the military. Whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly has throughout his term had popular support from a wide cross-section of voters, polls show.

On Tuesday, Obama again directly mentioned gay people when talking about the military. “We will ensure equal treatment for all service members, and equal benefits for their families – gay and straight,” he promised. Obama did not directly call for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. But granting equal benefits to military couples is only possible if it ends. That was made clear on Monday when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the military would extend some limited benefits to same-sex couples. A lot remain unavailable because DOMA bans the federal government from recognizing the legal marriages of gays and lesbians.

As usual, the State of the Union address was often a laundry list of priorities. The president included calls to pass gun control, combat climate change, and invest in early education, for example. And he attacked Republicans for creating manufactured crisises that put the nation’s fiscal health in question, calling on them to pay the bills on time. The president focused most of his attention on the economy, declaring an end to the worst of the crisis that overshadowed most of his first term, but also calling on Congress to ask itself “How do we attract more jobs to our shores?”

Log Cabin Republicans focused their response on the economy, without mentioning ENDA or other issues. “If the President truly wants to be an ally to our community,” said Gregory T. Angelo, the group’s interim executive director, “he will not only continue pushing for social equality, but stop with the platitudes and get serious with a plan that addresses our nation’s fiscal problems.”

Senate Passes Gay-Inclusive Domestic Violence Bill

The new version of the Violence Against Women Act prohibits denial of services due to a victim’s sexual orientation.

BY TRUDY RING

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South Florida college students in wedding gowns walk to raise awareness of domestic violence in the six-mile College Brides Walk, held Friday in Miami Shores. The U.S. Senate today voted 78-22 to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, with a provision to assure services to gay and lesbian survivors of domestic violence. The legislation may have a tough time getting passed in the House of Representatives, though, as some Republican members object to the gay-inclusive provision as well as those covering undocumented immigrants and allowing Indian tribes to prosecute non-Indians for crimes committed on tribal lands,ABC News reports. Still, House leaders have promised quick action.

The original Violence Against Women Act was passed in 1994, but it expired in 2011, and Congress failed to reauthorize it last year, due to partisan differences over details. Vice President Joe Biden, who as a senator from Delaware helped pass the 1994 bill, is working with House Republican leader Eric Cantor on that chamber’s new version of the legislation, the Associated Press reports. The reauthorization would provide $650 million to states over five years to go toward transitional housing, legal assistance, and other services for people who have suffered domestic violence. It contains a provision that would prohibit denial of services on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability. Studies indicate many LGBT victims of domestic abuse have been turned away from shelters or denied protecton orders.

“I am proud that our bill seeks to support all victims, regardless of their immigration status, their sexual orientation or their membership in an Indian tribe,” Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the lead sponsor, said in a prepared statement. “As I have said countless times on the floor of this chamber, ‘a victim is a victim is a victim.’”

President Obama issued a statement saying the bill “will help reduce homicides that occur from domestic violence, improve the criminal justice response to rape and sexual assault, address the high rates of dating violence experienced by young women, and provide justice to the most vulnerable among us.” He called on the House to follow the Senate’s lead and pass the measure.

WATCH: Antidiscrimination Action Likely, by ENDA or Executive Order

Sen. Tom Harkin promises to get a federal anti-discrimination bill through committee this year, while President Obama may sign an executive order banning discrimination by government contractors.

BY TRUDY RING

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Senator Harkin and President Obama

It looks like there will be progress toward a federal ban on anti-LGBT discrimination this year, in one way or another. At a Center for American Progress event in Washington, D.C., today, U.S. senator Tom Harkin of Iowa pledged to move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act through the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which he chairs.

“I’ve been on ENDA for years — the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — and as chairman of the HELP Committee, I intend to move it this year,” Harkin said. “We’re going to move ENDA this year, so I just want you to know that, OK?” An aide to Harkin later clarified that he meant the committee, not the full Senate, as he has no control over whether or when the full body will vote, theWashington Blade reports.

Meanwhile, if Congress does not pass ENDA, President Obama may issue an executive order prohibiting companies that do business with the federal government from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, according to The Washington Post.

“Obama decided against issuing such an order during the presidential campaign last year, disappointing many gay-rights activists,” the Post reports. But now sources say he “may reverse that decision and issue the order if Congress does not pass broader legislation offering protection for gays in the workplace,” the paper notes.

Click the header link above to watch the video.

GetEQUAL Asks Obama to Keep First-Term Promise

What: GetEQUAL to Obama: “Sign the ENDA Executive Order!”

When: Sunday, February 10, 2013; 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM (EST)

Where: South side of the White House (nearest Washington Monument)

Who: GetEQUAL DC and families, friends, co-workers and supportive members of the community

On Sunday, February 10 – just two days before President Obama’s State of the Union Address – members of GetEQUAL DC will gather outside the White House to remind President Barack Obama of a first-term promise not kept. As he was running for president, then-candidate Obama pledged to extend workplace protections to all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people employed by federal contractors, but has yet to deliver any policy to protect these vulnerable employees, who can be fired in over half the states in the country based simply on their sexual identity, and 39 states based on their gender identity or expression.

President Obama could offer these protections today to 16 million people with the stroke of a pen by signing an Executive Order which would protect anyone employed by a contractor who receives over $10,000/year in federal funds. As we approach the first State of the Union for the president’s second and final term, GetEQUAL is reminding the president to keep the promises he made that will not only help boost our suffering economy but protect millions of workers and families.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Heather Cronk – heather@getequal.org – 202-491-7240
Janelle Mungo – janellemungo@gmail.com – 951-491-1581

Obama to Honor PFLAG Founder

The late Jeanne Manford, who started PFLAG after her gay son was beaten, is one of 18 recipients of the Citizens Medal.

BY TRUDY RING

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Jeanne Manford

TW: anti-gay violence

President Obama announced today that he will posthumously honor Jeanne Manford, cofounder of Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, with the Citizens Medal.

In 1972, Manford and her husband, Jules, formed a support group for parents of gay children, an organization that grew into PFLAG, after their gay son, Morty, was brutally beaten during a gay rights protest in New York City and police failed to intervene.

“In the years that followed, Manford continued to march and organize, even after losing Morty to AIDS in 1992,” notes a White House press release. Jeanne Manford died in January at age 92.

“Jeanne was one of the fiercest fighters in the battle for acceptance and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,” PFLAG executive director Jody Huckaby said upon Manford’s death.

Manford is one of 18 people who will be honored with the Citizens Medal in a ceremony at the White House a week from today. President Obama selected them from among 6,000 names submitted by the public. Other honorees include activists for people with disabilities, veterans, Native Americans, and many other groups and causes, plus the six Sandy Hook Elementary School staff members who died in the mass shooting there December 14.

Find the full list here.

Will Obama include ENDA in State of the Union?

Joint Session of Congress, gay news, Washington Blade, Barack Obama

President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Amid expectations that President Obama will encourage Congress to pass jobs legislation during his upcoming State of the Union address, LGBT advocates are calling on him to articulate the need for legislative and administrative action to protect against anti-LGBT job bias. President Obama will deliver the State of the Union address on Tuesday at 9 p.m. before a joint session of Congress to inform lawmakers about legislation he wants passed during the first year of his second term, which may include immigration reform, deficit reduction, gun control and  job creation initiatives.

But LGBT rights supporters — recalling Obama’s historic LGBT-inclusion in his inaugural address — are asking Obama to address one LGBT issue that remains outstanding since the start of his administration in 2009: the lack of federal non-discrimination protections for LGBT workers. Legislation addressing the issue that has languished in Congress for decades is known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Tico Almeida, president of the LGBT group Freedom to Work, said “it would be fantastic” for Obama to follow-up on his inaugural speech to call for ENDA passage.

“The year 2013 should bring important steps forward on ENDA, with a high probability of a successful Senate Committee mark-up and the possibility of a long overdue ENDA vote on the Senate floor,” Almeida said. “It would be very helpful for the president to use the State of the Union to assert his strong leadership on this issue by publicly calling on both chambers of Congress to vote on ENDA.”

It wouldn’t be the first time ENDA was mentioned during a State of the Union address. In 1999, then-President Clinton called for passage of the bill in addition to approval of hate crimes protections legislation, which Obama eventually signed into law in 2009.

“Discrimination or violence because of race or religion, ancestry or gender, disability or sexual orientation is wrong and it ought to be illegal,” Clinton said. “Therefore, I ask Congress to make the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of the land.”

Obama has also made references to the LGBT community in previous State of the Union addresses. In 2010, he foreshadowed the legislative effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” promising to “work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are.”

Click the header link above to read the full article.

Obama to include gay couples in immigration reform

BY JOE MORGAN
Barack Obama is expected to reform immigration laws to allow foreign partners of gay Americans to have a green card.

US President Barack Obama is expected to include gay couples in the proposal addressing immigration reform. In plans revealed today by Buzzfeed, same-sex bi-national couples will be protected in future US government plan. Currently LGBT American citizens have no way to confer citizenship on their partners, something that is sometimes difficult, but easier for straight couples. Under current law, same-sex couples are not eligible for green cards opposite-sex couples can receive even if they are married because of the Defense of Marriage Act. Foreign partners of same-sex couples have said they have found their green card applications denied – often forcing couples to separate or move abroad.

Senator Chuck Schumer has reportedly promised to attempt to add LGBT immigration reform to the Senate plan ‘later in the process,’ possibly through committee amendments. Responding to the report, former Republican presidential nominee John McCain said including gay couples in the immigration reform bill is not of ‘paramount importance’. Speaking on CBS Morning News, he said: ‘Well it’s something, frankly, of not paramount importance at this time. We’ll have to look at it, how to gage how the majority of Congress feels. That to me is a red flag that frankly we will address in time.’

The Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Immigration Equality, and National Center for Lesbian Rights issued a joint statement on calling for the change to the law. The full statement reads: ‘We are fully committed to and deeply understand the need for this nation to adopt a humane and effective comprehensive immigration policy which places a premium value on justice, dignity, respect and opportunity.

‘Any legislation must include the ability of couples in same-sex relationships to sponsor their spouse or permanent-partner in the same way opposite-sex couples have long been able to under current immigration law.

‘We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those striving for and dreaming of a nation that embraces all who come here seeking a better life.

‘We look forward to working with Congress, the White House and every community harmed by our broken immigration system to finally achieve the comprehensive reforms we all so desperately need.’

WATCH: President Obama Thanks LGBT Activists at Creating Change

The commander in chief issued a brief video address to the thousands of LGBT activists gathered in Atlanta this week for the 25th Annual National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change.

BY SUNNIVIE BRYDUM

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Fresh off his historically inclusive inaugural address, President Obama today issued a video address to LGBT activists gathered in Atlanta for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s 25th Annual National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change. 

In the brief video, posted to YouTube by the Task Force, Obama notes that real, lasting change doesn’t begin in Washington.

“Change has always come from ordinary Americans who sit in or stand up or march to demand it,” says the president. “The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has been a partner at the forefront of that movement for 40 years.”

The president goes on to applaud LGBT activists for lobbying medical professionals to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness and for shining a light on the silent suffering of millions in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. 

“I am more confident than ever that we will reach a better future,” Obama concludes, “as long as Americans like you keep reaching for justice and all of us keep marching together.”

Click the header link above to watch the whole address.