Obama: Our First Gay President

In 1998, Toni Morrison dubbed Bill Clinton “the first black president.” Advocate contributor Charles Perez says President Obama is on track to earn a title of his own.

By Charles Perez

COMMENTARY: Barack Obama could turn out to be America’s first gay president. Many of us thought it would have been Bill Clinton. It wasn’t. Excepting James Buchanan, our 15th and only never-married president, and Abraham Lincoln, who was rumored to have shared his bed with a male friend for reasons of economy and warmth, it’s beginning to look as if Barack Obama may be it.

Nobel Prize–winning author Toni Morrison dubbed Bill Clinton “the first black president” back in 1998. The first gay president may be the closeted Obama, who has stealthily hidden a very progressive gay rights agenda behind garments made of compromise and incrementalism. But now he’s stepping out. According to Andrew Sullivan in a recent Atlantic article, “He is coming through — more cunningly than most of us grasped.”

Two weeks ago, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department will no longer defend antigay legislation passed by Congress and signed into law in 1996 by President Clinton. It was a bold move with little precedent.

According to the attorney general, both he and President Obama concluded that at least part of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. At issue is the third section, which denies federal benefits to gay and lesbian couples married in states that recognize gay unions.

The decision came in part because of the marriage and death of Thea Spyer. Back in 1963, Spyer met and fell in love with Edith Windsor. The two went on to build a life together for over four decades, each wearing a pearl pin in place of a ring, so as not to give away their often-secret relationship. Finally, after a 40-year engagement, they were married in Canada.

Two years ago Thea Spyer died, where they lived, in New York State, leaving her estate to her wife, Edith Windsor. Though gay marriage is not legal in New York, the Empire State does recognize legal same-sex unions performed in other states, territories, and nations. The federal government, however, does not.

Spyer’s death not only brought an end to their 46-year relationship, it also brought a federal tax bill of $363,053. Windsor would have been exempt had she been married to a man. READ MORE HERE....

Federal judge rules against ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ over health care benefits

By Jamie McGonnigal

OAKLAND, Calif. — More and more challenges to the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) have been hitting the courts and getting shafted by federal judges.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland ruled Wednesday that California state employees can sue the federal government over their same-sex partners’ exclusion from long-term health care benefits, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The judge denied a request from Obama’s Department of Justice to dismiss the case, opening the floodgates for lawsuits from gay federal employees around the country.

Currently, federal employees can enroll in federally-approved long-term health care plans. Employees of the state can buy coverage at below-market rates, use untaxed income to pay premiums and deduct future benefits from their taxes.

The California agency has refused to sign up same-sex spouses because the Defense of Marriage Act denies federal tax benefits to any state that covers them.

Judge Wilken claimed that DOMA is “robbing states of the power to allow same-sex civil marriages that will be recognized under federal law” and made it clear she would be challenging parts of the law.

While this story doesn’t specifically address our personal stories, we thought it important to share the fact that a major decision was made Wednesday, that is in line with the decision of Judge Vaughn Walker’s which overturned California’s Proposition 8.

With more and more judicial challenges to the bigoted Defense of Marriage Act, it’s only a matter of time before we see it overturned in U.S. courts.

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