HOUSE GOP Vote to Defend DOMA in Court

Those dirty bastards! The GOP dominated House voted to defend DOMA.

Chris Geidner, from Metro Weekly has the story

The Bipartisan House Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), by a 3-2 vote over the objections of House Democratic Leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), directed the House General Counsel to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, according to a statement just issued by a group of Democratic lawmakers.
Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Barney Frank (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jared Polis (D-CO), David Cicilline (D-RI), and John Conyers (D-MI) just issued the following joint statement:
“This 3-2 vote, carried over the vigorous objection of House Democratic Leaders and structured to avoid a vote of the House as a whole, is partisanship at its worst.
“The President correctly concluded that the Defense of Marriage Act cannot and should not be defended in court.  It has been 15 years since Congress enacted DOMA, and the myths and stereotypes used to support its enactment have been shattered.  Married gay and lesbian couples pay taxes, serve their communities, struggle to balance work and family, raise children and care for aging parents.  Their contributions and needs are no different than anyone else’s.  The majority of Americans understand this and now favor extending the time-honored tradition of marriage to loving and committed gay and lesbian couples.  There is no legitimate reason for the federal government to continue denying married gay and lesbian couples the legal security, rights and responsibilities that recognition of their marriages would provide.  
“We are extremely disappointed that the House Republican Leadership has decided to actively promote and defend discrimination; and they cannot cloak their intentions with the false assertion that the President or DOJ have failed to execute the law faithfully.  The Administration considered this issue carefully, over several years, and opted not to defend DOMA in court after extensive study of the legal and factual issues at stake.  Based on the lack of any reasonable arguments that justify the harm that DOMA imposes on loving gay and lesbian couples, DOJ correctly concluded that Section 3 of the law violates the Constitution.  Its conclusion was hardly remarkable, as one federal judge already has ruled that the law is unconstitutional and cannot be justified under even the lowest level of judicial review.  
“The President’s decision that DOJ should not be expected or required to continue making harmful and unreasonable arguments that demean its credibility, and that of the American people, was appropriate.  While the decision not to continue defending a law is rare – as it should be – it is not without precedent.  The President has pledged to honor his duty to faithfully execute the law by enforcing Section 3 of DOMA until it is either struck down or repealed.  His courageous decision also honors his oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution’ by ensuring that the rights it guarantees have meaning.
“Rather than seeking to defend this law in court, House Republican Leaders should work with us to repeal DOMA.  This action debunks House Republican Leadership’s claim of being the so-called guarantor of states’ rights.  House Republican Leaders seem only to favor states’ rights when it suits them ideologically.  Rather than recognizing every states’ married couples equally, Section 3 of DOMA refuses to recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples from five states and the District of Columbia.  Those states have a clear interest in ensuring that all of their married couples receive the same recognition under federal law.  Certainly, Republican Leadership is not acting in these states’ interests.”
The move comes in the wake of today's 4:30 p.m. meeting of the BLAG, which Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) convened on March 4 in response to the Department of Justice's Feb. 23 decision that it would no longer defend Section of DOMA.
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RIGHT NOW! GetEQUAL has shut down the Capitol Rotunda protesting Speaker Pelosi on ENDA

More on this later.

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For the Record: No Segregation of Gay Troops

What is it with Gay bloggers f**king up info or rewriting stuff like Texas Board of Education? It's a hot ass mess, for realz.

The latest drama comes from you know who... John Aravosis.

Yesterday he posted this:
The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that it is considering segregating gay troops, specifically with regards to creating separate showers and/or barracks for straight and gay troops. Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld just transcribed the following quote from Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell at Friday's briefing about the new "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" survey:
"We think it would be irresponsible to conduct a survey that didn’t try to address these types of things. Because when DADT is repealed, we will have to determine if there are any challenges in those particular areas, any adjustments that need to be made in terms of how we educate the force to handle those situations, or perhaps even facility adjustments that need to be made to deal with those scenarios."
Segregation, folks. Separate but equal. In the year 2010. And from a black president, no less. How do you feel about the segregation of blacks in the first half of the 1900s? Did you think it was disgusting that African-Americans weren't permitted to drink out of our fountains, swim in our pools, sit at the front of the bus, share the same bleachers at a game, as the rest of us? Then why is it okay to even talk about segregating gays and lesbians? What would have happened to an Obama administration spokesman who talked about segregating blacks?
He goes on and on, but pretty much he ran this info as fact. Now, most folks who knows John's style should know to triple check his info, because it could be inflated or overhyped.

Well, some folks didn't and once again, took this for fact and posted this mess on their blogs.

Later, Chris Geidner got the truth and put it out there:

By time John Aravosis got a hold of it this morning, here's how Megan's carefully couched claim -- that, from my review of my recording still overstates what Morrell said, which was that "facility adjustments" were a hypothetical possibility -- had been twisted:
Does the White House not understand that a black president cannot institute a policy of segregation? Apparently they don't.
The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that it is considering segregating gay troops, specifically with regards to creating separate showers and/or barracks for straight and gay troops.
Of course, that wasn't what Morrell said -- and it wasn't even what Carpentier wrote. But, it's what Aravosis told the LGBT community and his readers today.
The segregation portion of Morrell's interview with Think Progress blogger Igor Volsky:
MORRELL: So, when I was asked, about the, you know – this is in the context of “why are you even asking these questions?” – well, we’re asking these questions because in our engagements with the force thus far, this has been an area of some concern. Now we need to test it to see if that holds for—if it really reflects the concerns of the force, and which members of the force. Is it older members? Is it younger members? Are they, you know—which ones? And, and then along with this information, the working group will make some recommendations about how to deal with those concerns. It could be, as I said, who knows? This could be dealt with through education programs, through training programs, or it may require “facilities adjustments.” But no one, no one is considering “separate but equal” bathing or living facilities for you know, gay and straight troops. That’s just not ever a consideration.
Q: So that’s off the table.
MORRELL: Absolutely off the table.
I don't get people sometimes. The truth was out there and folks just ran their own story. I need to know if they think about the impact this foolishness. Because of John's crappy post, I saw too many racist comments and I tell you, I wasn't Gay and proud at all when I read them.

It's really sad to see.Source URL: https://americanendeavor.blogspot.com/search/label/Chris%20Geidner
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