Bill to Bar LGBT Adoption Discrimination to be Introduced Tuesday

I find it increasingly frustrating that the Democratic party has decided to throw its support to LGBT equality now that they are no longer in a position to actually accomplish any of our goals. With the 2012 elections looming on the horizon, they realize just how much they need us.

The LGBT community has long been a political hot potato to be tossed around and used by right wing homophobes to motivate their base, often claiming we were a threat to children to strike a chill in the hearts of backward thinking, uneducated conservatives.

Now the Democrats are doing the same to motivate their liberal base, but this time, we're being portrayed as the heroes. There are thousands of children all over this country in need of loving, permanent homes. Many states bar LGBT people from adopting or fostering those children. A new piece of legislation scheduled to be introduced Tuesday would ban federal funding to those states.

Something about this just doesn't sit right with me. With the current political divisions in Washington, this bill has no chance of making it to the president's desk and its sponsors are well aware of that fact. Is it ever okay to use children as political tools, even when our side may benefit in the long run, or is this just another example of a carefully calculated political strategy?

Via The Washington Blade:

Steve Majors, a spokesperson for Family Equality Council, confirmed in a statement to the Washington Blade that Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) would on Tuesday introduce the bill, which is known as the Every Child Deserves a Family Act.

“The bill will drop on Tuesday in the House,” Majors said. “[Stark] wanted to do so in conjunction with National Foster Care Awareness Month.”

As it was previously written, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act would restrict federal funds for states if they have laws or practices that discriminate in adoption on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The 111th Congress was the first time the legislation had been introduced in the House.

Many states have recently undertaken action to restrict adoption by LGBT people. In Arizona, for example, Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed legislation earlier this month that would give primary consideration for adoptive placement to opposite-sex married couples.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has said she’d introduce companion legislation in the Senate. Majors said he received confirmation from her office that she’ll introduce her version of the bill in June. Gillibrand’s introduction would mark the first time the legislation has been introduced in the upper chamber of Congress.

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House and Senate Dems Introduce DOMA Repeal Bills

Image by Jerry Nadler via FlickrWhere were these ass-hats last year when they could have actually accomplished something? This just in from the Too Little, Too Late Department, via the Washington Blade:

House and Senate lawmakers on Wednesday pledged to lift the Defense of Marriage Act from the books upon the introduction of legislation that would repeal the anti-gay law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage.

In the House, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) introduced the legislation, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, along with 108 co-sponsors. Among the supporters are the four openly gay members of Congress: Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.).

On the same day, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), among the 14 senators who voted against DOMA in 1996, introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Among the 18 co-sponsors of the Senate bill are Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

Feinstein’s introduction of the bill in the Senate marks the first time that DOMA repeal legislation has been put forward in the upper chamber of Congress since the law’s passage 15 years ago.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Nadler denounced DOMA for treating married same-sex couples as “complete strangers” under federal law.

“This defies common sense and harms thousands of married couples who are denied federal responsibilities and rights, including access to programs like Social Security, that other couples can count on when getting married,” Nadler said.

Baldwin said those who have been fighting DOMA since it became law have always known fairness and justice were on their side.

“Repealing DOMA is important symbolically and substantively,” Baldwin said. “Now that we have repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ the Defense of Marriage Act remains the only example of overt discrimination against gays and lesbians written into our federal statutes.”

Gillibrand Launches Repeal DOMA Website

Image via WikipediaSenator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has been one of the most loyal and staunchest allies of the LGBT community. She took a leading role in the repeal of DADT and continues to lead the fight for full equality by working for the repeal of DOMA.

To that end, on the heals of the Obama Administration's announcement last week that the Justice Dept. would no longer defend the federal ban on marriage equality, the senator from New york has launched the website RepealDOMA.com, where she hopes LGBT Americans will share their stories about how they have been personally impacted by the Defense of Marriage Act.

From the site:

Achieving marriage equality for all Americans is a top priority for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and the first step
toward that goal is to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA.
 
Passed in 1996, DOMA: enshrined into US law the discriminatory notion that marriage is only between a man and a woman said that states that don’t allow marriage equality don’t have to recognize same sex marriages from other states denies loving married couples over 1,000 legal rights and privileges that straight couples enjoy.

On February 23, 2011, the Obama administration determined that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional and announced they would not defend it in court.
 
This is a big step forward but in the meantime, the law remains on the books until Congress repeals it.

Please sign the petition and join Senator Gillibrand in the fight to overturn this discriminatory policy.

Click here to visit the website and share your story.

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Gillibrand wants to cut funding for DADT discharges

Image via Wikipedia

Sen. Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY) told an audience at Saturday night's HRC fund raiser that she will be introducing legislation to cut funding for the enforcement of "Don't ask, Don't tell." Gillibrand was the key note speaker at the HRC gala at New York's Waldorf Astoria. (FYI, I had leftover pizza Saturday night.)

The Advocate reports:
During the speech Gillibrand reviewed how she has championed ending the military ban since being appointed to the New York seat vacated by Hillary Clinton last year. Gillibrand, a Democrat, faces a potential primary challenge from Harold E. Ford Jr. this fall.

“I am leading this fight because I believe strongly that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is a threat to the men and women in our armed services, and a threat to our national security,” she said.

Gillibrand reiterated the historic testimony of Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” was the “right thing to do.”

“The hearing this week was a very important first step, but we have a lot of work of to do, and we will lift this dangerous, discriminatory, and damaging policy out of our government,” said Gillibrand.

“Tonight, I am announcing that I plan to introduce an amendment to the budget that will bar the use of funds for the enforcement of this policy,” she said.
 

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NY's Gillibrand Gets Hearing on Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Newsday reports that New York's Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Monday she had won the commitment of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) to hold its first hearing this fall on the "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy on gays in the military.

The article points out that Gillibrand does not currently serve on the SASC, but did during the last congressional session. Gillibrand's people said she did not raise the issue last year when she served on the committee because she believed there was no support for addressing the repeal of DADT under the previous administration and the Republican-led congress.

In recent weeks, Gillibrand had led an effort to impose an 18-month moratorium on the policy banning gays and lesbians from serving openly in the US military. The NY senator had tied the moratorium to the defense authorization bill, but dropped the effort when she found there was not enough support for the measure.

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed as part of the bill.

No date has been set for the hearings which are expected to include experts on DADT. According to the Service Members Legal Defense Network, 321 service members have been discharge under DADT since President Obama took office.