Kathryn Lehman, Republican Lesbian Who Helped Write DOMA, Is Now Lobbying To Repeal It

[Tx4obama]

WASHINGTON -- It has been 16 years since Kathryn Lehman was a Republican Hill staffer working on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

Now Lehman's back on Capitol Hill, in a new capacity: as a lesbian GOP lobbyist trying to repeal the law she helped write.

Things were pretty different in Lehman's world in 1996. She was engaged to a man. Same-sex marriage wasn't legal anywhere. And the public perception of what it meant to be gay wasn't anything like it is now, she says.

"There was nobody married, it wasn’t allowed anywhere," Lehman recalls. "The view of gay people ... it wasn't Ellen (DeGeneres). It wasn't Neil Patrick Harris. It was kinky sex and women riding around on motorcycles without shirts on. That was sort of the view that the community projected as well."

<SNIP>

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/kathryn-lehman-doma_n_1341775.html

[GodlessBiker]

1. What a singularly uninteresting story.

And then she says she doesn't understand how Obama is still evolving? Look in the fucking mirror, jackass.

[tanyev]

2. Yet another Republican who finally gets it, but only after a personal experience.

They're absolutely incapable of putting themselves in someone else's shoes.

[Blue_Tires]

7. +1

[JoeyT]

3. So she blames the LGBT community

at the time for her own moral failings and cowardice. Yep. She's a Republican alright.

She's also full of it about what the public perception of the LGBT community was at the time. If she'd said that about 1976 she'd have still been wrong, so to say it about 1996 is completely absurd. I don't remember that being the public perception of the LGBT community at the time, and I lived in a small town in freaking Alabama.

So yeah, good for her or whatever on seeing the light on one issue that directly hurts her. She's still a miserable excuse for a human being that's lying to herself and insulting everyone's intelligence trying to justify it. And still refuses to abandon a party that actively hurts not only her minority group, but every other minority in the country because "OMFG TAXES ARE TEH BAD!!!!111".

(The hostility in this post isn't directed at the OP. It's directed at the right winger that wants a cookie for allegedly not sucking 100% of the time anymore.)

[n2doc]

4. "There was nobody married"

She doesn't even speak well. Typical Repub.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

5. What isn't mentioned in the article

is that DOMA was used to fire up the Republican base for the 2004 presidential election. That she doesn't feel a bit of guilt about this shows what kind of a person she really is.

[Brooklyn Dame]

6. The hypocrisy never ends with the GOP

And neither does the selfishness. So, if I understand her correctly, when she thought she was straight she felt like it was ok to deny gay people what should be their rights. Now that she's had an awakening she fights for what gay people shouldn't even have to fight for? Arrogance at its worst. I'm not gay but I believe they should have the same rights as straight people. I'm not a child but I will fight for their safety. I am not a man but I will fight against women who unfairly cast all men as oppressive bastards.

The right is wrong on so many issues it's tough to keep track! Sheesh!

http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2012/02/r-or-d/

http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2011/12/the-hubris-of-heterosexuality/

http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2012/03/this-is-america-on-wingnuttery/

[markpkessinger]

8. I think they call that "product lifecycle management" :0

[Ruby the Liberal]

9. And if she wasn't gay, would she still stand up

or is this purely for her own personal interests. Again.

Look, I applaud when people admit an error, but this just comes across as a little too self-serving. Maybe its in the way the information is presented, but I wouldn't put her up as a role model for equality (at least not without a PR firm helping her smooth out her story).

JMO.