Federal DP Bill Advances To US Senate Floor

According to HRC Backstory, the United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, S.1102, (also known as DPBO) by a vote of 10-6 (8-1 official in-person vote) to the Senate floor, with five Republicans and Democrat David Pryor of Arkansas voting against the bill and Chairman Joe Lieberman ("Independent") and Ranking Member Susan Collins (Republican of Maine) voting in favor along with all the other Democrats on the committee.

The companion bill in the House which is sponsored by lesbian Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (Democrat of Wisconsin), H.R. 2517, is also pending on the floor of that body after having passed the House Committee on Oversight and Government Management on November 18th.

HRC sent out a press release lauding the Senate Committee action:

“Today’s markup in the Senate is an important step toward guaranteeing equal compensation for lesbian and gay workers serving our government at home and abroad,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “DPBO recognizes that equal pay for equal work is a value fundamental to American opportunity. We thank Chairman Lieberman for his leadership in ushering this important legislation through Congress.”

The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act (DPBO) was introduced in the 111th Congress by Chairman Lieberman and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in the Senate and by Congresswomen Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) in the House. DPBO would provide the same family benefits to lesbian and gay federal civilian employees as are already provided to employees with different-sex spouses. To receive benefits, employees would have to submit an affidavit of eligibility for benefits with the Office of Personnel Management, certifying that the employee and domestic partner meet necessary criteria, as provided in the Act.

DPBO would bring employment practices in the federal government in line with those of America’s largest and most successful corporations. Nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies provide domestic partner benefits to their employees. In addition, 23 states, the District of Columbia, and over 150 local governments make benefits available to public employees and their same-sex partners. A May 2000 poll conducted by the Associated Press found that a majority of Americans favor the extension of health insurance coverage to same-sex partners. In addition, this legislation has been endorsed by the American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Harvard University, National Treasury Employees Union and United Church of Christ.

Looks like DPBO will make it to the President's desk before ENDA. Oh my bad, I forgot, there's been no progress on LGBT rights in the Obama Administration because Barack Obama hates "teh gays." STFU!

Federal DP benefits Bill Passes House Committee

The White House Media Affairs Office just sent out a press release featuring John Berry, the openly gay head of the Office of Personnel Management, lauding the movement of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act:

OPM Director John Berry lauds passage of Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act through House Committee on Oversight and Government Management

Bill provides essential recruitment tool for the Federal government

Washington, DC – Earlier today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Management approved H.R. 2517, the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, sponsored by Representative Tammy Baldwin. The measure extends benefits to the domestic partners of Federal employees, including participation in the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) Program, retirement and survivor benefits, relocation reimbursements and other benefits currently offered to spouses of Federal employees. The Committee also adopted an amendment offered by Chairman Edolphus Towns that made changes to the legislation to ensure proper implementation.

“I want to commend the Committee for approving the Domestic Partnership Benefits Act,” said U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry. “This is an essential recruitment tool as we seek the best and the brightest to tackle the many challenges America faces.”

Berry also said: “This is a positive step that helps the federal government to better compete with other employers for top talent. President Obama has stated clearly that this is an issue of equality. But just as important, youth today, LGBT or not, see this benefit as a litmus test for determining high quality employers. The Administration looks forward to continuing its work with lawmakers as the House and the Senate move toward enactment of this bill.”

OPM oversees human resources and benefits policies for over 1.9 million Federal civil servants and 2.5 million retirees and survivor annuitants.

But I guess nothing positive is happening on LGBT rights in this Administration so we might as well as boycott them. Not.

Obama Administration To Announce (Some) Federal DP Benefts

What a difference a few days make! It was announced late on Tuesday that the Obama Administration will allow domestic partners of federal employees to receive some benefits, although apparently health benefits will not be included, due to the odious Defense of Marriage Act.

According to the New York Times:

Mr. Obama, in an Oval Office announcement, is expected to offer details about which benefits will be provided. It is the most significant statement he has made on gay issues, and it comes as he faces intense criticism from several gay rights leaders over what they suggest has been a failure to live up to campaign promises in the first months of his presidency.

Mr. Obama will be weighing in for the first time on one of the most delicate social and political issues of the day: whether the government must provide benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. While he will announce a list of benefits, officials said, they are not expected to include broad health insurance coverage, which could require legislation to achieve.

The initial reaction from some gay rights advocates was mixed.

“Extending benefits to partners of gay federal employees is terrific, but at this point he is under enormous pressure from the gay civil rights community for having promised the moon and done nothing so far,” Richard Socarides, an adviser to the Clinton administration on gay issues, said Tuesday evening. “So more important now is what he says tomorrow about the future for gay people during his presidency.”

Presumably, the President will announce his support for H.R. 2517/S. 1102, the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, co-authored by Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis) which would extend health benefits to same-sex domestic partners of federal employees.

The gay blogosphere is all over the story, and many of them are not impressed. Many people are pointing out that this first announcement of an LGBT initiative is occurring after a furor has blown up over an LGBT Democratic National Committee fundraising event scheduled for next week started receiving high profile defections.

In Jeff Zeleny's article in the Times it is revealed that

"the timing of the announcement was intended to help contain the growing furor among gay rights groups. Several gay donors withdrew their sponsorship of a Democratic National Committee fund-raising event next week, where Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to speak."

Emphasis added by Pam Spaulding over at The Blend. John Aravosis at AmericaBlog is one of the main sparks fanning the flames of the furor.

Excitin times, peeps!

Top Gay Explains Obama Actions On LGBT Issues

Lesbian reporter Kerry Eleveld interviewed OPM Director John Berry yesterday at an LGBT pride festival in Washington, D.C. and he gave this extended answer on behalf of the White House:

We have four broad legislative goals that we want to accomplish and legislation is one of these things where you've got to move when the opportunity strikes, so I'm going to list them in an order but it's not necessarily going to go one, two, three, four. Obviously, I think the first opportunity is hate crimes and we're hopeful that we can get that passed this week. We're going to try, but if not, we're going to keep at it until we get it passed. The second one ENDA, we want to secure that passage of ENDA, and third is we want to repeal legislatively "don't ask don't tell," and fourth, we want to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Now, I'm not going to pledge -- and nor is the president -- that this is going to be done by some certain date.

He also went on to discuss the controversy du jour, the DOJ brief defending DOMA:

Finally, I want to talk to you about the DOMA brief. Our strongest argument against “don’t ask, don’t tell” is that we stand with the truth. And that we, more than anyone, know the cost of lying and the terrible pain it invokes.

This president took a solemn oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and he does not get to decide and choose which laws he enforces. He has to enforce the laws that have been enacted appropriately and that he has inherited. It would be wrong for me or any of our community to advise him to lie or to shirk his responsibility. He’s doing his job. He has made clear that he stands for the repeal of DOMA. It will be part of this administration’s agenda to accomplish that act. We ought not waste energy and angst attacking him when we should be focusing the energy and effort on getting 218 votes in the house and 60 votes in the Senate, and that’s where we ought to target the energy and the strength of this community and this president is with us, this is our agenda and it’s his agenda.

I find it bizarre that the Obama White House thinks that it doesn't have the votes to pass legislation (DADT repeal and trans-inclusive ENDA) which has huge popular support.

However, what this John Berry interview reveals is that the White House strongly needs to hear the appeal by former Clinton adviser that they need to appoint a senior White House aide to deal with LGBT issues. It's not John Berry's job to be the mouthpiece for the Obama administration simply because he's the highest ranked openly gay Obama appointee. Berry is the head of the agency which manages the 1.9 million strong federal workforce. Someone else should be tasked with interfacing with "senior Administration officials" when LGBT issues arise.

Openly Gay Man Confirmed To Head OPM

John Berry was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate very early Friday morning to be the head of the agency in charge of the nearly 2-million strong workforce of the United States government. The Office of Personnel Management used to be the agency responsible for firing known homosexuals will now have an openly gay man at its helm.

From The Advocate's coverage:

“I will do my best to ensure that our policies are inclusive and fair for all,” Berry said. “That is something that I believe will produce benefit not only for LGBT people, but essentially for every community of interest, whether it be disability, African-Americans, Hispanics, Latinos -- all the communities that need to be represented at fairer levels in our government.

“We need to draw upon the strength and diversity of our nation,” he continued, “and we need to treat and accord fairly each and every one of them with benefits, and training, and with promotional opportunities that are second to none. I will strive to accomplish that for all Americans.”

Berry will take his oath and step into his new role on Monday, April 13. He said he plans to invite Frank Kameny -- a gay rights icon who was fired by the federal government for his sexual orientation in 1957 -- to his formal swearing-in ceremony, which has yet to be scheduled.

I am glad to see that despite the reluctance of either the nominee or the Administration to be out front acknowledging Berry's open homosexuality, the OPM Director seems perfectly willing to address LGBT issues in the federal workplace.