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Loading ...Obama statement on DOMA
08.17.2009 12:34pm EDT
From the White House:
Statement by the President on the Smelt v. United States Brief
Today, the Department of Justice has filed a response to a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, as it traditionally does when acts of Congress are challenged. This brief makes clear, however, that my Administration believes that the Act is discriminatory and should be repealed by Congress. I have long held that DOMA prevents LGBT couples from being granted equal rights and benefits. While we work with Congress to repeal DOMA, my Administration will continue to examine and implement measures that will help extend rights and benefits to LGBT couples under existing law.
BFD.
This message does nothing more than pander to our interests. To intimate that one abhors a law, yet will follow it because it was created through the appropriate channels is similar to a follower of a radical iman in Iraq saying “I don’t agree with killing gays, however, since my iman says to do it, I will until he removes the edict.”
Excuse me the State Department has to defend all laws no matter who made them, because they cannot pick and chose if they do the Religious right will be up in arms say that they are being discrimated against because the government picked and choosed which laws to up hold. No this has to play out using the courts and government legislation.
Peter Drucker said, “Management is doing things the right way. Leadership is doing the right things.” We are still waiting for this administration to provide leadership.
Apparently you people missed all the statements and speeches and interviews Obama has made over the last few months/years in which he has consistently repeated that he can only do so much -even as the president of the United States- without the assistance of the actual groups begging for help! He has called on GLBT people to lobby for their own causes! And what response have we as GLBT people given him? We’ve given him the finger, and we’re standing athwart progress by claiming that only the president can help us. This is not true. This is, in fact, patently UNtrue. LEGISLATIVE policies must be repealed in a LEGISLATIVE manner. When the president (be he Obama or George W. Bush or anyone else) uses his office to exert extreme powers, the whole of the federal democratic system is in jeopardy. And while personalities like JonnyBoy seem content to throw the system to the winds in favor of THEIR version of equality, there are those of us who value the lives and opinions of people outside of our selves. It’s not all about us, you know? And GLBT people aren’t the only people who need equal rights and equal protection under the law. This is a big, big world and there are lots and lots of people in it, all of whom have different ideas about the way things *should* work. Are you willing to sacrifice America’s democratic system in favor of YOUR version of equality? If the answer is yes, you need to do some self-education in the realm of civic responsibility.
And while people like mscottdodd are content to wait for someone to provide leadership for them, the rest of us should take Obama’s suggestion to heart and start writing our congresspeople, our state, local, and national representatives, we need to stage events and volunteer, we need to work for the rights that we are asking people like the president to simply grant to us. Additionally, with equal rights come equal responsibilities. Civic rights and civic duties go hand-in-hand, and we as GLBT people are refusing to acknowledge that fact. We can’t simply be posting comments on 365gay and hope that that’s enough to change hundreds of years of social structures and dozens of years of legal discrimination. Obtaining legal equality requires us to actually participate in the process, not stand on the sidelines shouting suggestions, then whining when no one listens. Proactivity is EVERYTHING! Posting comments on the internet is nothing. Stop demanding leadership, go out and become a leader! A good place to start: use the Google to find GLBT centers in your area, go there, sign up for a community event, and participate!
>BFD.
YEAH! Who *cares* if he’s fulfilling his campaign promises to the letter. The BUM!
He has said all along that he will defend current law while simultaneously trying to change it. And keep in mind that *congress* is the only elected body that can actually make the change. All he can do is suggest and use the bully pulpit to nudge.
>Peter Drucker said, “Management is doing things the right way. Leadership is doing the right things.”
Let’s move into mind blowing territory here: you can do both.
Tearing DOMA down is doing the right thing. Upholding currently law until a new one is passed is doing things the right way.
Remember W? His administration picked and chose which laws they thought were valid. We still haven’t untangled ourselves form that mess yet. Obama is trying to do it right.
Tara, no, they do not. The RR did not elect Obama and if they complain he can tell them to vote for him next time. He did not run on a platform of continuing Bush II’s theocracy (even though he is doing pretty well at that….) so saying he will piss off that base of people is just wrong…he should work to not piss off a base he has, vs. one he does not.
Yhitzak, where to begin????:
1. Shame on you for saying we aren’t doing anything but posting here. I post here to affect the GLBT community, I don’t post to influence our president or congress. That is done with letters and phone calls. During the mass fight I made myself very public for the first time, had an interview with our public radio aired (and recieved calls afterwards), met with our elected officials (and was told I changed one mind) and went to public forums as a couple to explain to confused people why we want to marry. SHAME ON YOU for assuming we do none of that!
2. All the statements and interviews you say we missed are why we are angry. HE LIED TO US. Duh!
3.WRONG! the legislature IS NOT the only way to get our rights acknowledged! In Mass we used the courts and then had to win a legislative challenge, but the courts did this for us. This particular case is about the COURTS not the legislature, and Obama is the top man in the organization that sends lawyers to court to defend laws. This CAN happen with the judicial and executive branch ALONE WITHOUT the legislature.
4. Not about us you say? I hear you saying that we need to wait in line for our rights. B.S.!!!! We can demand our rights be recognized and have them be recognized while we also support civil rights for other people. I hear your “value the lives and opinions of others” as a really bad thing for our community as what you really mean is “we need to allow for a religious pass to be a bigot” and that is UNTRUE. Religion does not get you a morality pass, religion is amoral by definition, and I will not allow that people don’t think I’m equal because of their religion and their opinion matters. It does not. I can start a religion that says murder thy neighbor. That “diverse” opinion would not be accepted in public discourse as viable and neither is the religious based hatred of me. Others opinions DO NOT MATTER when it comes to acknowledging our rights.
5. Obama doing the right thing here “hey holder, back off that case, ok” is not equivalent to Bush II’s thwarting our Democracy. he broke treaties! He brought religion into our government like never before. He ignored laws. We are asking Obama to not defend an unconstitutional law. This is very different than breaking the law!!!!
Thanks for the attempted civics lesson but you are way, way, way off on this one.
Gerry, I have to point out that Bush II chose which laws to BREAK. We’re asking Obama to choose to not defend a law in court. BIG DIFFERENCE.
Also Congress is not the only body that can fix this. The courts can strike down laws, and that is the point of this lawsuit.
I can’t imagine being your type of apologist “oh he’s just doing things the right way”.
That IS NOT change I can believe in..its the status quo.
Can we all have a reality check? Our president’s employees are out there defending a law that makes us second class citizens. Does anyone see how horrible that is instead of defending him to the bitter end? You all sound like the Bush defenders that are still around, not listening to facts but just backing your man.
DaveW: Obama and the administration cannot simply choose which laws to defend and which not to. If they do not defend the constitutionality of a law that may even just POSSIBLY be constitutional they’ve essentially just allowed a potentially constitutional law to be labeled unconstitutional. That is no way to run a country.
DOMA is an awful law that must be overturned, and if the government can’t make the case that it’s constitutional the court will overturn it. But if they can legitimately defend it as constitutional they must or else the constitution is no more meaningful to the Obama administration than it was to the Bush administration.
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I’ve come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
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And, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step…
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