Congressman: White House LGBT Announcements Imminent

[FreeState]

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid85221.asp

California representative Howard Berman predicted in an interview Thursday that the White House would be presenting new information regarding LGBT policies sometime before annual pride celebrations in June...

Congressman Berman, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, foreshadowed the announcements during an interview about the Foreign Affairs authorization bill that passed out of his committee Wednesday and will provide new diplomatic and development resources for the State Department.

While the bill included many positive provisions to help address LGBT issues abroad, one section that was struck from the legislation would have ended the practice of excluding domestic partners of foreign service officers from benefits routinely provided to spouses and children, such as access to emergency evacuation support, training and language classes, health care and regional medical units, employment opportunities, consulate services, and visa and relocation support.

Berman said he agreed to remove that section of the bill based on his understanding that both the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were committed to equalizing treatment for same-sex partners in the very near future. He suggested that declaration might be part of a greater package of policy pronouncements from the White House.

“My expectation with respect to the issues that were originally part of my bill, is that the State Department and the secretary will provide the kinds of benefits that I sought,” he said, adding that he was committed to ending discrimination against gay and lesbian foreign service officers. “If I’m wrong, which I don’t think I am, we still have a ways to go on this bill and we can reverse course.”

I dont understand why it would have to be removed when it could be implemented in this way and in a bill thats almost ready rather than pushed off to some future plan or date. Hopefully Obama will clear this up himself so that we are not left guessing as to what he is doing.

Berman referenced a quote from Michael Guest, a gay ambassador who finally resigned in 2007 over the State Department’s discriminatory practices, in which Guest said, “Under current practices, we’re kinder to family pets of foreign service officers than we are to gay partners.” That’s true, Berman said, noting that the country pays for the transportation costs of pets to and from foreign posts and provides evacuation services for pets.

What did make the bill were a series of policies that will empower the State Department to: track violence and discrimination against LGBT people that would be deemed illegal in the United States; encourage and persuade governments of other countries to repeal or reform any laws that criminalize homosexuality or restrict fundamental freedoms of gay individuals or organizations; include in annual human rights reports documentation of violence or discrimination against people based on their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Representative Berman said some Republican congressmen like Chris Smith and Mike Pence opposed those inclusions in the bill.

“They were torn and conflicted, almost anguished in the debate,” said Berman, “because I don’t think they can or do justify violence against people because of their sexual orientation and I think they no longer seek to defend criminalization of homosexual conduct…. And yet, what they sought to eliminate with their amendments.”

Berman said he was hopeful the bill would reach the House floor for consideration by early June.

Wow - pets have more help than people? Thats just messed up. I love pets but I love my partner even more (on most days!).

Here is to hoping something is happening and this is not just another curve ball. Probably my biggest frustration with Obama and GLBT rights so far is the lack of communication from him. Everyone is guessing - we could spend out time and energy much more efficiently if he would be open about what he is doing and answer our concerns IMO.

[RufusH]

1. Having just read a thread about whether you'd save a pet or a stranger

this is pretty ironic. I guess our government would save a pet first.

I hope this gets changed. I didn't even know this policy existed. How depressing.

[Toasterlad]

2. My Prediction For the Big Announcement:

"We're thinking about the possibility of discussing the prospect of raising the issue of initiating preliminary talks about some random gay pet peeve."

[David Zephyr]

4. LOL.

I think you have it summed up quite well. To expect anything more is fool's gold. I agree with you Toasterlad. I'm sick of promises.

[readmoreoften]

3. Benefits for foreign service officers, but soldiers still get fired. Elites are being robbed of

their elite status! Why, even Republicans would agree that such things are improper! What's better, they won't disrupt our values because they're stationed overseas in private homes.

Not that I don't appreciate the gesture. But that's a little cowardly for my taste. All this tiptoeing is an embarrassment. Just strike down DADT and DOMA and end the charade already.

[TheWraith]

5. Right... and you know that the President can't "strike down" legislation on a whim, yeah?

:eyes:

[keepCAblue]

6. The president has the power. Read MLK's article, "Equality Now -- The President Has the Power"...

Published in the Nation, February 4, 1961, addressed to newly-elected JFK.

Whether it be by executive order or through his position to influence Congress, the president does have the power to make *real* change a reality. It was due to MLK's series of articles published in the nation, continued civil disobedience and constant pressure on JFK by the black leaders of the day which pushed JFK to author and submit to Congress the comprehensive civil rights bill which he delivered in a speech to Americans on national TV on June 12, 1963. Kennedy's bill ultimately became the Civil Rights Act of 1964--which was pushed through Congress by a newly-sworn LBJ who used his political might and collateral to get the necessary votes for passage. The bill was signed into law July 2, 1964 -- seven months after JFK's assassination.

Like JFK and LBJ, Obama has the power.

###########################

BUT BEYOND the legislative area and the employment of Presidential prestige, a weapon of overwhelming significance lies in the Executive itself. It is no exaggeration to say that the President could give segregation its death blow through a stroke of the pen. The power inherent in Executive orders has never been exploited; its use in recent years has been microscopic in scope and timid in conception.

Historically, the Executive has promulgated orders of extraordinary range and significance. The Emancipation Proclamation was an Executive order. The integration of the Armed Forces grew out of President Truman's Executive Order 8891. Executive orders could require the immediate end to all discrimination in any housing accommodations financed with federal aid. Executive orders could prohibit any contractor dealing with any federal agency from practicing discrimination in employment by requiring (a) cancellation of existing contracts, (b) and/or barring violators from bidding, (c) and/or calling in of government loans of federal funds extended to violators, (d) and/or requiring renegotiation of payment to exact financial penalties where violations appear after performance of a contract. With such effective penalties, enforcement of fair employment practices would become self-imposed by those enjoying billions of dollars in contracts with federal agencies.

...

WHEN our government determines to ally itself with those of its citizens who are crusading for their freedom within our borders, and lends the might of its resources creatively and unhesitatingly to the struggle, the blight of discrimination will begin rapidly to fade.

History has thrust upon the present Administration an indescribably important destiny—to complete a process of democratization which our nation has taken far too long to develop, but which is our most powerful weapon for earning world respect and emulation. How we deal with this crucial problem of racial discrimination will determine our moral health as individuals, our political health as a nation, our prestige as a leader of the free world. I can think of few better words for the guidance of the new Administration than those which concluded the 1946 report of the President's Commission on Civil Rights: "The United States is not so strong, the final triumph of the democratic ideal not so inevitable that we can ignore what the world thinks of us or our record." These words are even more apt today than on the day they were written.

[kenny blankenship]

7. As Commander In Chief of our nation's military, Pres. Obama can instruct the 4 Service Chiefs

and the Sec.s of the respective service branches not to waste a dime on enforcement of DADT. If he wants to play War Preznit, this is one emergency power he can exercise without backtalk from anyone. The much-admired Ronald Reagan remade America more by the way he DEFUNDED enforcement of laws and regulations he disliked than by overt changes to the country's laws. No one stopped him.
As President of the United States of America, President Obama has, as we all know, unchecked power to pardon offenses. Let him use it then to pardon any defendants of this heinously discriminatory and Un-American "law".
Edit: meant to reply to the poster above.