I published a long comment on one of yesterday's posts about Obama's betrayal of LGBT Americans in the Department of Justice brief in support of DOMA. The writer urges patience and argues that LGBT citizens have nowhere to go but to hang with Obama and the Congressional Democrats who take our money, accept our labor on their campaigns, and then ignore us or pat us on the head like children and tell us to wait for change. I'm sorry, but I do not buy that argument. If you want my support, then deliver on you promises. I was at the Obama rally in Virginia Beach last year with some other gay friends and Obama's words on gay rights literally brought tears to our eyes - yet he apparently meant none of it. As Jon Davidson, Legal Director of Lambda Legal points out in a message to one of my fellow bloggers, the Obama Justice Department could have defended DOMA with out the gratuitous insults to LGBT citizens. Here is Jon's message which he said could be shared:
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Whether or not the administration felt a need to defend, there are many ways one can defend. The administration could have rested on the first two arguments raised in their papers (jurisdiction and standing) that these plaintiffs were not entitled to sue without arguing at this point that DOMA is constitutional. Doing that would not have waived those arguments.
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What they need to be asked is why they gratuitously went out of their way to make the outrageous arguments they unnecessarily included such as that DOMA does not discriminate based on sexual orientation or that the right at issue is not marriage but an unestablished right to "same-sex marriage" or that DOMA is somehow justified in order to protect taxpayers who don't want their tax dollars used to support lesbian and gay couples (while it's apparently fine to make lesbians and gay men pay the same taxes but be denied the benefits provided heterosexual couples).
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Their public statements about the filing try to sidestep these points. They absolutely knew they did not need to make these additional arguments, especially at this time and consciously decided to do so. I am seething mad.
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The administration has a way to redeem itself -- by handling the DOMA challenge filed by Gay and Lesbian Advocates far differently. Unfortunately. The very same lawyer who filed this brief (Scott Simpson, who is a Bush holdover) has been assigned by the Department of Justice to handle that case for the government. The White House and the higher ups in the Department of Justice have the responsibility of ensuring that similar arguments are not repeated in that case.
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I have to take the fall for any scew ups by my staff and the same applies to Obama who, through his Attorney General, ultimately controls what happens at DOJ on this type of case. People need to stop making excuses for Obama and demand that he be held accountable
1 comment:
My patience has run out. "Do no harm" is a pretty minimal expectation from someone who ran as an advocate of g/l equality and the Obama Justice Department (which, like the rest of the government includes many civil service employees) has fallen below that. Not to mention being less progressive on the subject than Dick Cheney!
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