YEY D.C. I am so glad I live in a city that recognizes equality!!! If only the rest of the country could be so enlightened.Catania said he is buoyed by the fact that he has a super-majority standing with him."For me, I have to be honest, it's a particularly satisfying point in time to have a community and the council that is so committed to marriage equality," Catania said in an interview Thursday. "The debate is almost over here. The acceptance, while not universal, is substantial."
Bills addressing immigration rights for gay couples have been percolating in Congress for almost a decade, but none have gained traction on Capitol Hill until now. One of the movement’s newest allies is California representative Mike Honda, a Bay Area Democrat who in June introduced a bill that includes gay couples in expediting immigrant family reunification. “I couldn’t say I was working for all families if I didn’t include a category of committed partners whom I would certainly consider to be equal,” Honda says.
Over the past few weeks, we've helped build unprecedented momentum to repeal DOMA. But President Obama has yet to take action against DOMA, and Congress still isn't getting the message. We need to keep up a constant stream of pressure if they're going to act.Until DOMA is repealed, gay and lesbian married couples will be denied the federal rights straight married couples enjoy, like Social Security survivors' benefits, putting a spouse on a health plan without tax penalties, the right to take family and medical leave to care for a spouse, and equal treatment under U.S. immigration laws... The list goes on.It's up to us to make sure Congress understands the impact of their inaction on thousands of married couples who remain strangers under federal law.
Washington Post article on Obama's stance on same-sex marriage:Even if Obama does in fact believe in marriage equality, he hasn't done -- and is unlikely to do -- much to forward the cause. And apart from some toothless sniping from a handful of gay activists and donors, he seems to be getting away with it. In this way, the presumed (yet secret) good intentions of Democrats can wind up doing more harm than good: They tell the gay community that Democrats are at least better than the GOP, thus providing an excuse that can be employed endlessly while they stall.For some time, liberal politicians have taken a largely wink-and-nod approach to gay issues. They've done so with the excuse that the culture must catch up before any progress can be made (an excuse that conveniently doesn't apply to other liberal interest groups, such as unions and trial lawyers, that do very well when Democrats are in power). Obama paid tribute to this timeworn tactic recently when he told gay activists at the White House: "I want you to know that I expect and hope to be judged not by words, but by the promises my administration keeps. By the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."
This is an important step forward, and one we hope signals the federal government's burgeoning commitment to including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in data and reporting on a broad spectrum of critical matters, such as those related to our community's health, economic issues, safety and life circumstances.
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