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Source: Reuters
President Barack Obama extended limited job benefits to gay
partners of US government workers in what he called a first step to
end discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Under pressure from gay rights groups, Obama urged Congress to pass
legislation that would extend full healthcare and retirement
benefits to gay families in the 1.9 million-strong federal
workforce, as many US businesses already do.
"Many of our government's hardworking and dedicated and patriotic
public servants have long been denied basic rights that their
colleagues enjoyed for one simple reason: the people that they love
are of the same sex," Obama said before signing an order to extend
benefits for federal workers' gay partners.
"It's a day that marks a historic step towards the changes we seek,
but I think we all have to acknowledge this is only one
step."
Obama's announcement showed that his administration may focus more
on incremental, tangible gains for gays and lesbians, rather than
wading directly into the divisive gay marriage debate that has
played out at the state level.
Gay rights groups called Wednesday's move a welcome first step and
said they understood that the president had been busy trying to
shore up the economy and lay the groundwork for landmark healthcare
and climate-change legislation.
But they said they would continue to press the administration to
outlaw workplace discrimination and extend benefits for same-sex
couples.
"Those things should happen today, should have happened yesterday
and they haven't and until they do there's going to be a
frustration," said Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights
Campaign, a gay-rights group.
Obama did not back gay marriage during the 2008 campaign, but he
did promise to repeal a 1996 law that prevents the government from
recognizing same-sex marriages.
The administration will work with Congress to repeal that law, the
Defense of Marriage Act, and extend workplace-discrimination laws
to cover gays, said John Berry, head of the US Office of Personnel
Management.
The administration will also try to overturn the "Don't Ask, Don't
Tell" policy that allows the US military to expel troops that are
openly gay, Berry said.
Divisive debate
The outlook in Congress is unclear as a divisive debate over gay
rights could interfere with Democrats' goals to pass landmark
legislation covering climate change, healthcare and financial
regulation.
Lawmakers are still weighing whether to try to repeal the entire
Defense of Marriage Act or simply target sections that prevent the
government from offering healthcare and retirement benefits to the
same-sex partners of federal employees.
"Our goal is to come up with a strategy that is more effective to
restoring equal rights to gay Americans," said Ilan Kayatsky, a
spokesman for New York Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler.
The House of Representatives in April approved an expansion of
federal "hate crime" laws to cover gays and lesbians, but the
measure has not yet passed the Senate.
At the state level, six states currently recognize gay marriage or
plan to by next year, while six others and the District of Columbia
provide some level of spousal rights for same-sex couples,
according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Some 29 states have changed their state constitutions to ban gay
marriage.
The memo that Obama signed will:
- Open up the government's long-term care insurance to gay partners of federal employees;
- Allow federal employees to use their sick leave to care for a gay partner or the partner's children;
- Allow gay partners of foreign-service employees to use medical facilities at overseas posts and get evacuated if necessary;
- Include same-sex partners and their children when calculating family size for overseas housing allocations;
- Extend current anti-discrimination rules in the federal workforce to cover transgender employees.
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