Obama administration finally fulfilling gay rights promises
Andrey Ukrazhenko
With his recent decisions to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, President Barack Obama seems to be finally fulfilling the promises he made on the campaign trail all those years ago about gay rights. It's about time.
Before he became president, Obama, in a Dec. 18, 2008 press conference said, "I think that it is no secret that I am a fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans." Since then, advocates for gay rights have consistently asked "where's that fierce advocate?" and, until very recently, he was nowhere to be found.
That's why I say it's about time that Obama has finally changed his course on those two very important issues: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act. These two laws epitomize the legal discrimination against gays and lesbians in this country, and their repeal will be very much welcomed by many people, especially the gay rights community.
First was Obama's repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" with the help of Congress. On Dec. 22, Obama signed the law that would end the 17-year-old legislation and allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. At the signing ceremony, according to White House transcripts on whitehouse.gov, Obama summed up the momentous occasion better than I ever could: "I say to all Americans, gay or straight, who want nothing more than to defend this country in uniform, your country needs you, your country wants you and we will be honored to welcome you into the ranks of the finest military the world has ever known."
Though the law will take a while to implement, the heads of the different branches of the military have moved forward with the policy change with professionalism. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen have both announced their plans to enforce the new policy at every level of the military.
Meanwhile, in a Feb. 23 New York Times article by Charlie Savage and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, the Obama administration announced that it will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in courts, meaning that any cases brought against it will likely find little resistance. The law, as it stands now, says that no state must recognize the legal status of gay and lesbian marriages performed in other states. Therefore, if I hypothetically married a man in Iowa, the state of Kansas would have no legal obligation to treat me as a married person here. I would receive none of the benefits of marriage or any of the rights afforded to married couples.
Obviously, the Obama administration thinks that the Full Faith and Credit Clause in Article IV, Section 1 of the Constitution actually stands as law. Crazy, right? This part of the Constitution states that "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial proceedings of every other State."
The Full Faith and Credit Clause was part of the issue in Finstuen v. Crutcher, where a federal court ruled that a gay couple who adopted a child in one state were the child's legal guardians in every state. But with the Defense of Marriage Act, a gay couple could get married and adopt a child, yet only have half of that equation recognized by most state governments. This level of discrimination and hypocrisy demands that the law, and others like it, be repealed.
And of course, individual states are increasingly legalizing gay and lesbian marriages through legislation and court decisions. Maryland may soon become the next example. But without a concerted effort at the federal level to overturn the legal bias against the gay community, we can have little hope of making any progress.
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