It's History

And so it goes.
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Local Couple in - and on - The News

Some of you may be familiar with the Writer, Fay Jacobs. Well this little story took a happy turn today outside the court of the Supremes.(Fay & Bonnie are the couple at left. click to embiggen.) Not only the story below, but they made the local TV news as well:

WASHINGTON -- Bonnie Quesenberry and Fay Jacobs celebrated their 31st anniversary in front of the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It would have been their 31st wedding anniversary had marriage been legal for same-sex couples back when they got together, in 1982, after meeting at a conference at John Hopkins University.
Quesenberry, a retired dental lab technician, wore small purple sunglasses, and Jacobs, a writer, wore black fleece. As the two women waited on the steps to hear how the arguments in the case against the federal Defense of Marriage Act inside the court were going, they bumped into another lesbian couple, also together for 31 years.
"We're the 31 club!" Jacobs exclaimed, holding out her home-made banner, which read, "If Gay Marriage were LEGAL Today would be our 31st Anniversary," and laughing.
"We've had congratulations said 1,000 times," Quesenberry said, as the four women all embraced. "This just couldn't be better."
Mary Jo Kennedy, a family practice doctor, and her wife, Jo-Ann Shain, a freelance editor, held up their own sign: "31 Years Together, 20 Months Married, 4-Ever Grateful, 2 Marriage activists everywhere."
Kennedy and Shain were among the first couples to wed in New York in 2011 after the state legislature there passed marriage equality legislation and six years after they filed a lawsuit seeking a marriage license.
Like Quesenberry and Jacobs, they also met in 1982, at a health conference in Los Angeles. "But we both worked at the same hospital in the Bronx," Shain said, laughing. "Our first date was in the cafeteria."

To say we're proud of our gals would be an understatement. Read the rest of the story HERE.

And so it goes.

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The Country Wins

Last week Bill Maher said, "if Obama wins, the country wins - if Romney wins, comedy wins" so, guess what?  Uh-huh. Alright Lady Liberty, you can come out now;

OK, time for all the wingnuts to climb back inside the clown car and follow the Republican Circus Crazy Train into the sunset.

The only winner from the national wingnut brigade, crazy-eyes Michelle Bachmann, will continue representing her state.  I suppose her constituency is as coo-coo as she is - and that's saying something.

It was a good day for the country overall.

• Elizabeth Warren beat up out tea-party pretty boy, Scott Brown in the Massachusetts senate race.
• Open lesbian, Tammy Baldwin is heading for the Senate to represent Wisconsin.  Unfortunately, Paul Ryan (Romney's VP choice) will return to his seat in the House also representing WI.  He hedged his bets. Too bad that, but can't win' 'em all.
• Another gift, Alan Grayson took back his Florida seat after losing the last time round.  Outspoken and always ready to educate the rightwing stoopid, he will be another refreshing change in Congress.
• Marriage equality succeeded in 4 states, NOM and DOMA suffered severe losses across the board, and the loons opposed to abortion (and knew more about women's bodies than women did) went down in flames.

Shenanigans & dirty tricks:

• Targeting democrats and minorities with mailers giving the wrong polling place and date which, when discovered, were promptly corrected by local media, word of mouth, and phone calls.
• Creating bottlenecks for voters (you know who they are!) by limiting voting machines in areas of high progressive/Democratic turnout. Think Florida & Ohio. Word got out early and some waited on long lines for 4 hours or more to cast their ballot. But they would not be denied, they eventually voted, and that's what counts.
• Rigging or tweaking voting machines so if the voter didn't push the correct button in the proper sequence, their vote was voided, or in some cases switched to the other party.  That one was caught early on election day. No details yet. There is a YT video, however.
• Photo ID was demanded in states that do not have voter ID laws. While some voters complied, others refused and demanded to cast their ballot.  To avoid mass publicity the poll workers allowed those who refused, to vote anyway.

The majority of schemes the Republicans concocted to fool or deny voters access to the polls, in the end were all for naught and showed them to be the whining, childish cowards they are.

While the media insisted that Obama's base of young people, minorities, and elderly had eroded, it was these very people who discovered and warned about the tricks listed above. 

I was always told as a child that 'cheaters never win and are usually found out'.  Maybe it's Karma.

Results of many local races, (including my state of Delaware where most progressive candidates won easily) show that things are changing in the US. Religious bigotry and overt disdain for those who disagree with the ultra-conservative agenda lost in almost every instance.

There is a dangerous Nor'easter, already named Athena,  heading our way - New Jersey and New York are in its path, too (prayers ascend for everyone in harms way) - but I'm feeling pretty good today.

And so it goes.
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CNN Segment on BiNational Couple Hits Home

Now, as you know I have no TV service, so I depend on the Interwebs for news. Well, raise my rent!  Blogger buddy Mark, of "Our Simple Lives" and his husband, Fred were interviewed live today on CNN. I spotted the clip on several sites and finally located this one.

The guys have a family that includes 4 adorable children and a true HAM of a dog.To be honest I didn't know of their plight until recently. They were pretty private people until now. Their story is heartbreaking.   Watch the clip then take a trip to Mark's blog, say "Hi" and learn how you can help change the incredibly harmful and stupid DOMA.

Go over and send the guys some love, and get to know a real American family HERE.

And so it goes.
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Meet the 95 Biggest Homophobes in the US House

They are going to work hard to force the President to defend DOMA. 

Joe Sudbay has the list over at AMERICAblog Gay.

"This morning, there are press conferences on the House and Senate sides of the Capitol to mark the introduction of DOMA repeal legislation."

If your Congress Critter is on the list, you might want to drop him or her a note or email.  Maybe even make a phone call.

Of course they are all Republicans and even some of the new members from the Teabaggers crowd.

Have a look and do what you can to make them hear your side.

More later.
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Just a Thought

Ah, Republicans.

Training & Telemarketers: Reading Beads of the Stoopid

So, I am minding my own business, attending a training session to help manage the restaurant's website, and all of a sudden my cell phone rings. Thinking that it was the boss checking up on me, I answer saying, "yes, alright already, I am here, Jeez!"

But it's not the boss; it's a random call from the DNC asking for a donation to fight off the racist teabaggers and Republicans in November. As the caller began to read from her script I interrupted asking that they remove my cell number from the call list (it is already on a no-call list) and she asked for my home phone number, which was her big mistake.

me: Please remove this number from your list. It's in the National Do Not Call Registry.

dnc: Oh, well, give me your home number to add to our database.

me: No,

dnc: Well how are we supposed to reach you?

me: Somehow you got my unlisted cell number, so I am sure you're capable of finding those published, or are you people too lazy?  Look it up.

dnc: (ignoring what I just told her) Well in any case since I have you on the line we're asking for a donation to ----. 

I stopped her cold.

me: Whoa!  Stop there. Let me tell you something - and - listen - carefully - there will be NO donations to the Democratic Party until EQUALITY is addressed; until DADT is ended; DOMA is gone for good: the DINOs (Democrats In Name Only) are made accountable for voting with the GOP and Teabaggers. As promised during the last campaign.

dnc: What do you mean by "equality" exactly? (Again ignoring the elephant in the room)

me: If you have to ask that question, you don't know how to use a search engine, or pay the slightest attention to the events of the past two years. Listen, if you are a volunteer dragged in to make cold calls, you can be somewhat forgiven. If, however, you are employed by the DNC you are part of the problem and the reason that I will not contribute to the party.

dnc: Well, why don't you just tell me so I don't have to search for the answers? (touch of sarcasm, here)

me: So, you ARE lazy.  THAT is the real problem. None of you have a clue to what is going on, making you just as out of touch as the Republicans.

This made her bristle.

dnc: we're taking great steps to address the needs of the American people and.... (reading from her script again).

me: Are you calling from the Washington DC area?

dnc: No, I'm in Florida - and things are about to change. (that damned script again - got to admit the old girl has stamina).

me: Are you aware of the BP Disaster in the Gulf back in April and its continuing impact on the lives of the communities and people in that area? The devastating impact on the aquaculture of the entire gulf coast?

(silence)

me: that's what I thought. Tell you what; when you acquaint yourself with the issues I've mentioned and can discuss them intelligently, give me a call on my home phone, when you find it.  Oh, and what you find out may make you rethink your own contributions to the party, too.   I hope this call is being recorded, though I doubt it. For now, this conversation is over. 

(call ended)

My trainer, Nancy, was staring, mouth open. She didn't know what to say, if anything, so I just went to my notes and picked up the session where we left off because of the rude call. I was seething inside, but wouldn't let it show. I let it go away quietly and finished the training. It was a good session and the site will be relatively easy to update. A very productive 3 hours. And, no ftp protocol to deal with.  Praise G*d!

Nancy escorted me to the parking lot and mentioned the call and my responses because, she said, " your face was tight, eyes fixed on nothing,  and there was a calmness about you." Truth is I was forcing every fiber of my body to remain calm and fixed on the point. I am not very good at this sort of altercation, but getting better.

Maybe because of the interruption I became more focused, but what ever it was, I retained more knowledge than I thought I would.  Yes, I took notes, but only for navigational and editing purposes, and I was pleased that when I returned home I was able to log in and make some of the corrections that have bothered me for months (hey, being anal isn't easy!) and upload the corrected items.  Cool!

I'm ready for dinner and a few olives to celebrate.  Cheers.

And so it goes.
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Don't Ask, Don't Give: A Boycott

John and Joe over at AMERICAblog launched this boycott earlier today. The cosponsors are some of the best around. It seems the effort is being picked up by (gasp!) traditional media outlets. Yeah, shocking, I know. Here's the deal.

Earlier today, we launched "Don't Ask, Don't Give," a donor boycott of the DNC:

Joe and I are launching today a donor boycott of the DNC. The boycott is cosponsored by Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Andy Towle and Michael Goff of Towle Road, Paul Sousa (Founder of Equal Rep in Boston), Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler (ED of the Equality Campaign, Inc.), Bil Browning for the Bilerico Project, and soon others.

Since the post went up, we've received coverage across the spectrum of media. Kerry Eleveld wrote a great piece at The Advocate. Ben Smith picked up it up, as did Atlantic Online.

Salon reported on the issue:

The tensions between the LGBT community and the administration have been constantly bubbling under the surface, and at times there have been open battles. Though the White House made some moves to at least quiet the most public of those fights, they've still been unable to bring the gay activists who'd normally be a solid base of support back into the fold.

Now, the fighting's back out in the open, as two prominent gay bloggers -- John Aravosis, who's previously written for Salon, and Joe Sudbay of Americablog -- have announced that they're organizing what they're calling a temporary donor boycott of the Democratic National Committee. Joined by another high-profile figure in the movement, Michelangelo Signorile, they're asking people not to donate "until the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is passed, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) is repealed, and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is repealed."

It will be interesting to see how the White House responds, if at all. And it will also be interesting -- and instructive -- to see how members of the LGBT community, and voters of all kinds, respond. The gay organizations haven't been at the forefront of the opposition to Obama; instead, it's been people like Aravosis and Signorile leading the charge. Success now might help them further supplant the traditional power structure in the community.

The best response from the White House would be to work on passage of ENDA and the repeal of DADT and DOMA. It was, after all, what Obama promised.

We'll have more later...including the blog reaction.

I can get behind this one. I've not gotten any response from my senator, Tom Carper, regarding his recent voting record on many issues, so I am ready for some belt-tightening at the DNC. Are they? Follow the link and sign the petition.

Check out the blog for updates.

More later.
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HRC Dinner and Obama.

The President is a great speaker, but aside from the Hate Crimes legislation passed recently, his administration has been less than successful on equality issues. While that success isn't minor, it's been making accerlated progress in the past few years. There's this on his HRC speech last night from Think Progress:

President Obama received a warm welcome at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner tonight, where he promised to sign hate crimes legislation — which just passed the House — into law and repeal both Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act, although he didn’t outline a specific timeline. Acknowledging some frustrations that there hasn’t been quicker action on these issues, Obama reiterated that he remains committed to the fight for LGBT equality:

OBAMA: This story, this fight, continues, now, and I’m here with a simple message: I’m here with you in that fight. (APPLAUSE)

For even as we face extraordinary challenges as a nation, we cannot and we will not put aside issues of basic equality. I greatly appreciate the support I’ve received from many in this room. I also appreciate that many of you don’t believe that progress has come fast enough. I want to be honest about that. (APPLAUSE) Because it’s important to be honest amongst friends.

Obama also addressed right-wing criticisms being hurled at his LGBT nominees and staffers, such as EEOC nominee Chai Feldblum and Department of Education official Kevin Jennings. Both have been the subjects of extremely homophobic slurs. WorldNetDaily editor and CEO Joseph Farrah said that Obama must find “people” like Feldblum on “Perverts.gov,” and the Traditional Values Coalition wrote that she wanted “the gay agenda to trump the First Amendment and religious freedom.” Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has claimed that Jennings wants to push a “homosexual agenda” in U.S. schools.

I remain hopeful that the President will come through despite the safe, appeasing political leanings of Rahm and others who have his ear. Bi-partisanship hasn't worked out since the Repugs can only say no, shooting down any positive proposal made by the administration even when supported by the majority of Americans. What has been gained on the vital issues facing the US right now? None. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

Go and read the rest and view the short video HERE.

It's 5 o'clock somewhere...Cheers!

And so it goes.
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National Equality March: Obama at HRC

President rehashes the rhetoric of the campaign. Gives no ground on any issue related to the LGBT community; makes no promises, which was as expected.

His speech at the HRC was the usual mixed bag. His opening comments about it being a privilege to "open for Lady Gaga" was an attempt to relax the audience, who seemed welcoming enough anyway. Nothing new in the lengthy speech, only the same old, same old.

Excuse me! The adults may be talking, but they're not saying much about equal rights of folks like me. I am very disappointed.

To all my friends willing and able to be in DC this weekend, or only for the march today. You represent me, as well. You are in thoughts and prayers. Be safe and be careful.

Off to work I go. More later.

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Dump DOMA - Don't Defend it

Just found this in the inbox and thought I'd share in case anyone isn't on their mailing list.

Dear CAJUN,

On Monday, the Department of Justice filed a brief in the case Smelt v. United States, which challenges the constitutionality of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The brief acknowledges that DOMA is discriminatory and that this administration supports its repeal. It also repudiates dishonest and offensive attacks that anti-gay forces have made against parents in same-sex relationships and it rightly points out that the children of same-sex couples are happy, well adjusted and successful. But it disappointingly continues the administration's contention that the discrimination in DOMA does not raise serious constitutional concerns.

Because of DOMA, legally married, same-sex couples are being denied benefits and protections that their neighbors take for granted. That's unacceptable.

We must challenge the president to work with Congress on a clear road map to achieving equal justice for all people. And we must challenge Congress not to wait for the president, and to show some leadership in the much-needed repeal of DOMA.

Please make sure to add YOUR voice to the fight to repeal DOMA.

• Sign our petition to Dump DOMA if you have not already done so.


• Make sure to ask others to add their name to the petition at http://www.dumpdoma.com/ (or forward this email).


• Join our Dump DOMA group on Facebook.


• Donate to our efforts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Thank you for all that you do. Together, and with your continued activism, we will win the fight for full legal equality for same-sex couples.

-- Michael B. Keegan, President

Click the link if you are so inclined.

More later.
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White House Conference Call with LGBT Leaders

This is from AMERICAblog's John Aravosis:

White House deputy chief of staff, and the political director, have a 2pm conference call scheduled with the members of the gay caucus of the DNC. The administration has also scheduled a meeting this week with the top non-profit gay rights groups.

Privately, I also wrote to four White House contacts on Friday night and asked that they also schedule talks with the top gay rights leaders with constituencies online - the top leaders involved in the uproar over the past week - including, if those leaders are interested, Pam Spaulding, Andrew Sullivan, Joe Jervis, Dan Savage, and Andy Towle (I suggested those names as a starting point, not exclusively), and of course Joe Sudbay and me as well. I received no response.

Joe and I have been talking about this, and we've been fascinated how the White House's response to gay issues has been very 1990s. Thinking that the gays are the third rail of politics, when in fact the polls are pretty darn great on our issues (even with Republicans, conservatives and churchgoers, when it comes to DADT). Thinking that the major issues confronting the community are hospital visits and changing the names on our passports, instead of growing community anger over Don't Ask Don't Tell and marriage. It's as if the White House is stuck in 1993.

Then we started thinking about the White House's last-minute effort to reach out to the gay groups for cover (holding the hastily-arrange benefits memo signing last week, and now holding conference calls and meetings with the DNC's gay caucus and the traditional non-profit gay rights groups. It's all very 1990s in that the White House fails to recognize the importance of the online community overall, but also to this particularly uproar.

Back in the early 90s, if you had HRC on board, you could pretty much write your own ticket as a politician trying to woo the gay community. Towards the middle 90s, you had new groups like Service Members Legal Defense Network (SLDN), and established groups like GLAAD coming into their own. You also had NGLTF, and others of course. Zoom ahead to 2009. Not only is it not a certainty that having any one of the top gay groups on board is enough to win over the community, but it's no longer clear that even having most of them on board is enough.

Why? Because of the Internet.

The community at large is getting more and more agitated, even angry at the DOJ brief comparing our relationships to incest and pedophilia and I don't think the WH is going to get out of this one easily. Unless of course, the champagne and caviar make our "leaders" swoon and sign on to whatever the WH is selling this time.

Read the rest here. Stay Tuned.

And check for updates.

More later
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Gays to Obama: "We've Seen Enough."

From Wayne Besen writing at HuffPo. Here's just a snippet:

For what seemed like forever, Democrats told us that when the big bad Republicans went away, our lives would improve. Well, the Republican nightmare is over, so why do I still feel like I'm in the middle of a political Friday the 13th movie?

The Democrats took our money, our votes and our volunteer hours and now they tell us to wait patiently, like good little gays. As far as I'm concerned, if the donkeys can't deliver now, they can kiss my ass.** The Democrats run the show in Washington and if they will not act like a majority party, then they do not deserve to be one.

This is not about making unreasonable policy demands, but about the Democrats recognizing the daily struggles faced by gay people. A new report by The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs said, "Violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people increased 2% from 2007 to 2008, continuing the trend of a 24% total increase in 2007."

Yesterday, I read about a lesbian who was barred from visiting her partner in a Fresno hospital, and as a result her partner received the wrong medication. Last week, I was in conservative Western Michigan where I spoke to young people who were nearly driven to suicide as a result of anti-gay attitudes.

We need a president who recognizes these evils and demonstrates the courage and leadership to enact the change he so eloquently promised during his campaign.

**Emphasis mine.

Read it all HERE.

More later.
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Obama Betrays Gay Community

From AMERICAblog's John Aravosis, an opinion piece at Salon.

Here's a taste:.

June 17, 2009 | Team Obama keeps telling lesbian and gay Americans like me to be patient. If we just wait a little longer, administration officials whisper to us lovingly (and out of earshot of the media), after the White House finishes with healthcare reform and getting the troops out of Iraq, your time will come. In the meantime, cheer up -- we put a gay band in the inaugural parade!

Everyone loves a parade, but we don't like being betrayed. And while gay and lesbian Americans were initially willing to cut our new president some slack, the president's now-clear reticence to follow through on even one of his many campaign promises to the gay community has put the Democratic Party on the precipice of an ugly and very public divorce with this once-solid constituency.

During the presidential primaries, then-candidate Obama promoted himself as the biggest defender of gay rights since Harvey Milk. He would be a "fierce advocate" for our rights, he promised, and he even out-gayed Hillary Clinton: telling gay and lesbian voters that while she was for a partial repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), he'd get rid of the whole damn thing.

And there was much rejoicing.

Then, not so much.

About a year before the November election, primary challenger Obama invited Donnie McClurkin, a homophobic gospel singer who claims to have been "cured" of his own homosexuality, to lead a series of concerts in the South in order to woo the black vote. The gays were not amused, but candidate Obama held firm. The gays forgave the Big O until a year later, when then-President-elect Obama chose evangelical preacher (and well-known homophobe) Rick Warren to give the inaugural prayer. Again, the gays expressed their ire, Obama wouldn't budge, and his advisors continued to whisper sweet nothings in our ears about how glorious the future would be once Dear Leader was finally in office.

But a funny thing happened on the way to equality. Rather than clouds opening up and angels descending from on high, Barack Obama became president and things never got better for the gays. In fact, they got decidedly worse.

The rest is HERE. (There is one pop up, but just close it and read on.)

And so it goes.
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DOMA: A More Likely Scenario

From a forum at DU by Political Tiger:

• Despite all the hoopla, the assertion that "Obama defends DOMA" simply is NOT true.
• You see, the Department of Justice has a legal obligation to defend the United States when it is a party to a criminal or civil action. This has already been pointed out by some people and promptly dismissed by those determined to lay all the blame on Obama, however, try to deny that truth as one might, it is the truth.
• This is laid out under Title 28, Section 547 of the United States Code:
• United States Attorneys conduct most of the trial work in which the United States is a party. The United States Attorneys have three statutory responsibilities under Title 28, Section 547 of the United States Code:
• •the prosecution of criminal cases brought by the Federal government;
• •the prosecution and defense of civil cases in which the United States is a party; and
• •the collection of debts owed the Federal government which are administratively uncollectible.
• http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/index.html
• But....but....but it's still Obama's fault! It had to be cleared with Obama! Obama had to have OKed the brief! Obama's hand is all over this! Obama hates the gays........
• WRONG!
• You see, under The United States Department of Justice - United States Attorneys Manual, TITLE 1; DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTIONS (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/... ), there is a section titled "Department of Justice Communications with the White House" (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/... ).
• Under Section 32:

---Read it all HERE.

This makes more sense to me than the other accusations, but hey, when you've gotten the shitty end of the stick so often it pays to be skeptical. Working with the probable truth is much better than worst case scenarios, isn't it?

Stay tuned.

And, I WANT to believe this president's word is good for us all. But, that's just me.

More later.
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Obama DOJ Defends DOMA

As Rev. Gene Robinson recently told the Hotline in the National Journal, “patience is wearing thin” with President Obama. The LGBT will not be marginalized and taken for granted. Here's part of the press release issued Friday by the NGLTF:

We are very surprised and deeply disappointed in the manner in which the Obama administration has defended the so-called Defense of Marriage Act against Smelt v. United States, a lawsuit brought in federal court in California by a married same-sex couple asking the federal government to treat them equally with respect to federal protections and benefits. The administration is using many of the same flawed legal arguments that the Bush administration used. These arguments rightly have been rejected by several state supreme courts as legally unsound and obviously discriminatory.

We disagree with many of the administration’s arguments, for example that DOMA is a valid exercise of Congress’s power, is consistent with Equal Protection or Due Process principles, and does not impinge upon rights that are recognized as fundamental.

We are also extremely disturbed by a new and nonsensical argument the administration has advanced suggesting that the federal government needs to be “neutral” with regard to its treatment of married same-sex couples in order to ensure that federal tax money collected from across the country not be used to assist same-sex couples duly married by their home states. There is nothing “neutral” about the federal government’s discriminatory denial of fair treatment to married same-sex couples: DOMA wrongly bars the federal government from providing any of the over one thousand federal protections to the many thousands of couples who marry in six states. This notion of “neutrality” ignores the fact that while married same-sex couples pay their full share of income and social security taxes, they are prevented by DOMA from receiving the corresponding same benefits that married heterosexual taxpayers receive.

The rest is HERE.

It's feet to the fire time, friends.

UPDATE: From Towleroad.

For the record, here's the official response the White House sent Towleroad (also sent to other media) to the uproar over the Department of Justice's motion for dismissal of the federal same-sex marriage case:

"As it generally does with existing statutes, the Justice Department is defending the law on the books in court. The President has said he wants to see a legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act because it prevents LGBT couples from being granted equal rights and benefits. However, until Congress passes legislation repealing the law, the administration will continue to defend the statute when it is challenged in the justice system."

More later.
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