But should they?

As firestorms rage over healthcare reform, the economy, energy policy and the seemingly never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a quieter storm has been brewing in the gay community since candidate Barack Obama, a “fierce advocate” of LGBTQ rights, became our nation’s 44th president.

On the stump, Obama offered regular shout-outs to “our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters,” pledging to overturn DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (U.S. military policy), and to add sexual orientation to hate crimes legislation. Yet, Obama’s first act as he prepared to take the oath of office was to select evangelical pastor Rick Warren — a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage — to read the invocation at the Presidential Inauguration ceremony.

Thus began the perceived diss of the gay community, which had so ardently supported his candidacy. It didn’t help matters when the newly minted POTUS put off his social agenda to tend to more urgent issues. Yet, what is the reality of Obama’s promises to the gay community and what has he done for them lately?

The Defense of Marriage Act

“We got married the first time in 1999 in my home state of Oklahoma,” says Morgan Graham, who lives with her spouse Sherri, in Fairfield. “It was a civil ceremony — or a full-price wedding without any of the rights that go along with marriage. After Connecticut passed equal marriage, we took our vows again on our 10th anniversary and now, we finally have all the same rights as other married couples.”

But, not so fast, sister — according to Lee Swislow, executive director of GLAD (Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders), a Boston-based group providing legal assistance to the LGBTQ community for 30 years, these newlyweds and others will be in for a rude awakening as they discover that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed into law in 1996 by President Clinton, puts the kibosh on states’ marriage rights at the federal level.

“As more gay couples get married in Connecticut, they will understand all the ways their marriages aren’t respected,” says Swislow. “They’re not considered married when filing federal taxes, adding partners to health insurance, filing for Social Security benefits and other such protections afforded to married couples.”

GLAD is currently filing a lawsuit for eight plaintive couples and three individuals in Massachusetts, who, because of DOMA section-3, have been denied legal protections for which they are currently eligible. GLAD is also gathering names of newly married same-sex couples in Connecticut.

“Overall, Obama has made visible gestures to the LGBTQ community and had a reception at the White House for 100 activists,” says Swislow, “but there’s still work to be done to achieve equality — in other words, he’s talked the talk, but hasn’t yet walked the walk.”

Another newlywed, who married her partner in California before Prop-8 (the 2008 voter proposition that eliminated the right to same-sex marriage) was passed, has no illusions about her rights as a married lesbian.

“DOMA needs to be gone — it’s unconstitutional on its face,” says Zinka Benton, who remarried Fran Rzeznik in Connecticut and settled down in the New Haven area. “There are over 1,100 rights and responsibilities that go along with marriage. The bottom line is that you end up paying extra for the privilege of being gay.”

For example, it costs more to hire an accountant to file separate taxes at the state and federal level and Benton is also required to pay taxes on her spouse’s health benefits.

Benton, an attorney, is still hopeful that Obama will fulfill his promises to the gay community. On Monday Obama reiterated his intentions to work with Congress to repeal DOMA.

“One could argue that equality is moving slowly for us,” she says. “But, when you consider that just 40 years ago Stonewall happened, a lot has been accomplished. In states where same-sex marriage was legalized, the sky hasn’t fallen and nothing bad happened — if you don’t have a gay family member you’d never even know it occurred.”

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

Fairfield resident Val Bogner was discharged from the Navy in 1983 for being a lesbian. “I was confronted by Naval Intelligence at a base I was stationed at with a statement from a past lover who wrote a detailed exposé of our relationship and the type of sexual activity we had done together,” says Bogner, a former Petty Officer with the U.S. Navy, prior to the passage of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

Bogner, who is now engaged to another woman, was told she could deny the statement and fight the charges or be granted an Honorable Discharge without the reason being revealed publicly in her military service file. So, she decided to take the Honorable Discharge. But years later — when she finally saw the papers herself when she filed paperwork to adopt her daughter — Bogner learned that anyone who did a routine background check on her would see the reason for her discharge.

“It stated right on the first page of my discharge packet, very clearly: ‘honorably discharged — homosexuality,’” says Bogner. “No one could be openly gay in the military. Period.”

Bogner had received outstanding reviews from all of her chiefs and supervisors.

“No one ever complained that I wasn’t doing my job,” says Bogner. “How ridiculous is it to judge people by who they love?”

Bogner thinks that Obama will succeed in overturning DADT.

“I believe there are more pressing issues on his plate at the moment but, at the same time, I think it could be done quite easily.”

Since DADT was signed into law 16 years ago, approximately 13,000 members of the military have been discharged because of their sexual orientation, including 59 Arabic linguists and nine Farsi translators.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 69 percent of Americans support repeal of the law. This includes 58 percent of conservatives and 60 percent of churchgoers.

“I think there’s an excellent chance of getting this repealed in the 111th Congress,” says Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Service Members Legal Defense Network, a policy advocacy and legal services group headquartered in D.C. “Obama said he supports it, but we need an active partnership between Congress and the president.”

HR-1283 would overturn DADT. It has 168 co-sponsors in the House and Obama has vowed to sign it into law. Both Connecticut senators have spoken out against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in the past, though they haven’t come out to say they will vote to overturn the policy. And, unlike most states, Connecticut’s reps in Congress are unanimously in support of the law as well.

“In the senate, we’d love to see Dodd and Liebermann on board as they’ve indicated that they would,” says Sarvis. “What’s unique in Connecticut is that we have 100 percent support in the House.”

Hate Crimes

Sexual orientation hate crimes bills have languished in Congress since they were first introduced in 1997.

In April, Obama urged Congress to pass federal hate crimes legislation in HR-1913. The bill passed. In July, the Senate agreed to expand the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation and gender identity, and may vote on it in the next legislative session.

This decision came on the heels of the murder of a gay 29-year-old Camp Pendleton-based sailor who had recently come out on his MySpace page.

In Hartford, the group the Trans-Advocacy-Coalition is working for the rights of those targeted in hate crimes.

“It’s been over 10 years since the appalling murder of Matthew Shepard (the Wyoming student who was tortured and killed in 1998 for being gay) and long overdue to have federal laws enacted to protect LGBTQ people from similar crimes,” says Carol Buckheit, executive director of the Hartford-based group Love Makes a Family. “In this climate, gay people are particularly targeted. We applaud the fact that President Obama will sign hate crime legislation into law that includes sexual orientation.”

Promises Kept

Since taking office, Obama has chosen a number of openly gay people for prominent jobs and two lesbians were considered to replace Justice Souter on the Supreme Court. Last week, Obama named gay civil rights pioneer Harvey Milk and trailblazing lesbian tennis great Billie Jean King as two of 16 recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. He’s also the first president to grant tickets to gay families at the White House Easter Egg Roll.

But not everyone in the gay community sees Obama’s promise of change as a done deal.

“The bottom line is, if you thought Obama was a savior, he’s not,” says Mark Segal, publisher of Philadelphia LGBTQ publication PGN who interviewed Obama last year. “He’s dealing with centuries of hatred and disinformation about our community. Change does not come in six months.”

Questions or comments? Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Share this story:
Facebook |Twitter |Digg |Reddit |Stumbleupon

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Website:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."