Obama makes historic shift on gay rights

[spanone]

Reporting from Washington — In a historic shift on gay rights, the Obama administration announced that it believes the Constitution usually forbids unequal treatment of gays and lesbians, particularly when it comes to federal benefits for legally married same-sex couples.

Atty. Gen. Eric Holder said in a letter to Congress Wednesday that the Justice Department would no longer oppose legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act. The act, which was passed by Congress in 1996, bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages or extending them the same benefits as heterosexual couples.

Holder said the administration had decided that discrimination against gays can no longer be accepted as reasonable. Laws that allow such discrimination "warrant heightened scrutiny" by officials and judges, he said, similar to the scrutiny that courts give to laws "targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination."

This new stance by the administration was hailed as a "monumental turning point in the quest for equality" by Jon W. Davidson, legal director for Lambda Legal, a gay-rights group in Los Angeles.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-gay-marriage-20110224,0,1863741.story

[Buzz Clik]

1. Is it really a shift, or finally defining their position.

I firmly believe the latter.

[DonCoquixote]

2. Nice

But if you did it sooner, you would have strength. Obama, you need to get over the dream of peacefully uniting the nation, the New Dixie teabaggers will only be contained when they realize that we can and will ram our fist down their throat!

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

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[TheWraith]

3. Uh, he's been saying he supports the repeal of DOMA since the friggin' primary.

This isn't so much a "monumental shift" as an acknowledgement that that's unlikely to be feasible in Congress within the next couple years.

[walldude]

5. I'll give Obama kudo's for this one...

K&R

[GeorgeGist]

6. Waiting for the right-wing shoe to drop.

Probably Friday, when no one's paying attention.

[Kurovski]

7. K&R.

Good deal.