MENSAJE DE JOE SOLMONESE: PRESIDENTE DE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

GRANDÍSIMA VICTORIA DE LA COMUNIDAD LGBTT EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS Y VIENE NADA MENOS QUE DE OBAMA ¿Quieres ponerte al día con un tema crítico? Conviene leerlo para aclarar toneladas de dudas que vemos que existen en la isla…

Recuerden: “Knowledge is POWER”

DOMA: El acta que va en defensa del matrimonio tradicional osea CONTRA EL MATRIMONIO DEL MISMO SEXO.

HRC.com/2/.26.2011/Joe Solmonese-President

Today in America, there are still laws on the books that serve only to oppress LGBT people. As so many of us understand first hand, the Defense of Marriage Act is one such law. This week, Attorney General Holder released the Obama Administration's analysis that Section Three of DOMA, which denies legally-married same sex couples over 1,000 federal protections, is unconstitutional. He also announced that the administration will no longer defend the law in court, reversing the policy it had pursued for the past two years.

I don't need to lecture anyone in our community about the importance of this shift; LGBT Americans experience the reality of this law every day. Without the right to sponsor a spouse for immigration, some couples are forced to choose between love and country. The Family Medical Leave Act does not protect same-sex couples in times of sickness. The lesbian and gay soldiers who will serve our country in uniform once the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” is implemented will be rewarded with unequal support—their families will be excluded from many military family benefits. The truth is that DOMA materially harms LGBT people and our families, and there is no way to reconcile our common humanity with the harm that this law selectively inflicts. This week's announcement tells me that today, the administration takes DOMA's harms seriously.

While the administration previously argued that DOMA served various legitimate purposes, this week it acknowledged that discriminating against gay people doesn't serve such an objective. It also acknowledged the elephant in the room – DOMA's pedigree as a legislative statement of moral disapproval.

This President, a constitutional law professor, did not wake up one morning and adopt a novel interpretation of equal protection. He stared down an oppressive law with eyes wide open. He judged it in light of truths to which our nation was once blind. And he got it right.

And while this step forward in monumental, it is just the beginning of the fight for marriage equality at the federal level. There is no doubt that those opposed to equality will throw everything they have defending this terrible law – or that we will stand up to them, no matter what. But it is because of this fight ahead of us that we have got to keep things moving in the states. This week a victory in the Maryland Senate moved a marriage equality bill one step closer to reality, while in the pacific a supportive governor finally made a breakthrough by signing civil unions into law in Hawaii. Plenty of factors made these victories possible, but it was your actions, from phone calls to statehouse visits and everything in between, that helped to make them possible.

So we keep at it; we take these tremendous victories and we thank those that helped us to make them a reality, but we do not take our eyes off of the road ahead. Together we keep pressing and we do everything that we can to make tomorrow's America a place that is truly fair and equitable for everyone.

Joe Solmonese

President, Human Rights Campaign

TREMENDA VICTORIA PARA LA COMUNIDAD LGBTT EN ESTADOS UNIDOS

Vale la pena leer el recuento de la historia política sobre el gran “issue” EL Matrimonio del Mismo Sexo.

washingtonpost.com/2-23-2011/Post Politics/Jerry Markon, Ed O'Keefe, Sandhya Somashekhar and Peyton M. Craighill

In gay rights victory, Obama administration won't defend Defense of Marriage Act

The White House says President Barack Obama is "grappling" with his personal views on gay marriage even as he's ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of a law that bans it.

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it will no longer defend the constitutionality of the federal government's ban on recognizing same-sex marriages, a rare legal reversal and the latest in a series of political victories for gay rights activists.

In gay rights victory, Obama administration won't defend Defense of Marriage Act

The Justice Department had appealed the decision of a federal judge in Massachusetts who struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in July, saying it was obligated to defend federal statutes. The 1996 law defines marriage from the federal perspective as between a man and a woman, which means same-sex married couples are denied access to marriage-based federal benefits.

In an extraordinary change, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that he and President Obama had determined - after an extensive review - that the law's key section is unconstitutional. "Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute" in court, Holder said in a statement.

Administration officials said the review was triggered by a court-imposed filing deadline in two new legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, filed in federal courts in New York and Connecticut.

The change in position came after intense lobbying of Justice Department and White House officials by gay rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union, according to activists familiar with the White House's thinking.The conversations included meetings with White House counsel Robert Bauer and one of Obama's closest advisors, Valerie Jarrett. "There has been an all-out effort to get them to do the right thing," said one activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

Obama's relationship with the gay community, a key part of his political base, has been complicated, and activists had strongly opposed the administration's earlier defense of the federal same-sex marriage law. The president has said in the past that he does not support the right of gay couples to marry, though he said in December that his views are "evolving."

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that Obama's "position on the Defense of Marriage Act has been consistent: He has long opposed it as unnecessary and unfair." He said that the decision to change the government's legal position is "separate" from Obama's personal views and that the president has been "grappling" with the broader issue of same-sex marriage.

The administration's decision on the federal law comes as gay rights advocates have won a series of recent changes in how the federal government treats gay men and lesbians, including Obama's signing in December of legislation to end the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning gays from openly serving in uniform.

Liberal groups hailed the reversal. "The President has chosen to defend the Constitution of the United States over a discriminatory and clearly unconstitutional law," said Michael Keegan, president of People for the American Way. "That decision should be commended. A discriminatory law like DOMA has no place in a country grounded in the values of freedom and equality."

Richard Socarides, a longtime gay rights activists and director of Equality Matters, said Wednesday's announcement was as significant as Obama's push to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

"This is the position he took on the campaign trail, but now the government's policy will match up with the political rhetoric," he said.

Conservative groups vehemently objected, saying the administration's earlier position of defending the law in court was the right one. Holder acknowledged in his statement that the legal reversal was "rare." The Justice Department customarily defends federal laws in court.

"It's a dereliction of duty," said Tom McClusky, senior vice president of Family Research Council Action. "Whether they agree with the law or not is irrelevant. . . . The Obama administration has purposely dropped the ball here."

Same-sex marriage is legal in five states, including Massachusetts, and the District. The Maryland Senate on Wednesday advanced a bill to legalize it, and is expected to give the measure final approval Thursday. But same-sex couples are disqualified from receiving marriage-based federal benefits under the Defense of Marriage Act. Those who oppose the federal law say it requires states to discriminate against their citizens.

One of several reasons why the decision to end the government's defense of the marriage law came this week is that the March 11 filing deadline is two days after the one-year anniversary of the District's same-sex marriage law. The White House was aware that gay rights groups would have used the anniversary to contrast the administration's defense of the law against the District's embrace of marriage equality, according to activists.

Groups opposed to same-sex marriage say they will lobby House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to hire counsel to defend the law. His office has not said what he will do, but his spokesman Michael Steel criticized the Obama administration for its stand.

"While Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending, the President will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation," he said.

A poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in September found 43 percent of those surveyed favored allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally and 47 percent opposed. This is a high point for favorability of same-sex marriage in the center's polling back to 1996. The poll showed wide partisan divisions: 55 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of independents favored same-sex marriage, but only 21 percent of Republicans. The Washington Post's polls show a similar division and trend.

GOBERNADOR A LA VANGUARDIA Y EN DEFENSA DE TRANSEXUALES

Orden Ejecutiva aprueba medidas para defender los transexuales…

Universo Gay/20 de febrero de 2011/ Alexander Rocha

El gobernador del estado de Massachusetts firmó una orden ejecutiva en su despacho que impide que cualquier trabajador del gobierno pueda ser discriminado por motivos relacionados con su género.

Deval Patrick, el gobernador de Boston, aprobó el pasado jueves 17 de febrero una orden ejecutiva que establece una serie de medidas para impedir que cualquier institución de la región sea capaz de echar de su puesto de trabajo a una persona por ser transgénero.

En la agenda pública del político, ni tampoco en una nota de prensa, se manifestó públicamente que el gobernador fuese a firmar el proyecto, habiéndose producido en una ceremonia privada en la que solo estaban presentes, aparte de Deval Patrick, abogados y personas transexuales que trabajan en la actualidad para el estado.

Los activistas han manifestado su total apoyo a este proyecto que establece un referente en medidas contra la discriminación en todo el país americano, ayudando a que se aprueben leyes a nivel nacional a favor de la tolerancia.

Diane DeLap, trabajador transexual de Boston, declaró que "esto enseña a la sociedad que las personas transexuales también merecen un trabajo y ser tratadas bien".

Tampoco faltaron las críticas al proyecto, calificadas por los partidos de la oposición, homófobos, como la "ley del baño", aludiendo que "permitiría a cualquier sexo meterse en el baño del otro".

MILITARES: SE VIRÓ LA TORTILLA...

Universo Gay | 20.febrero.2011 / Alexander Rocha

AHORA LOS SILENCIOSOS SERAN LOS HÉTEROS PREJUICIADOS Y TENDRÁN QUE FUNCIONAR CON LA NUEVA POLÍTICA EN LA UNIFORMADA.

PROHIBÍDO OLVIDAR SOPENA DE EXPULSIÓN…

Después de que un juez dictaminara que la ley discriminatoria del ejército estadounidense era inconstitucional, empiezan a ser juzgados y despedidos altos mandos por violación de los derechos humanos.

Un Oficial de la Marina fue despedido por las torturas infringidas a marines estadounidenses en misiones en Bahrein bajo su mandato, humillando constantemente a distintas personas por su orientación sexual para, una vez que después se hizo público que eran homosexuales, echarlos por la ley estadounidense discriminatoria que fue anulada hace escasos meses.

Muchos de los marines destinados a Bahrein bajo el mando de dicho oficial han confesado a los investigadores, bajo estricto anonimato, las distintas medidas discriminatorias que el oficial impartía a las personas que sabía que eran homosexuales o bisexuales.

La Marina emitió un comunicado diciendo que el oficial despedido "no cumple con con los estándares que se le exigen a un cargo de su talla".

Uno de los marines discriminados, tras saber la noticia, ha manifestado: "Este caso tendrá un gran impacto en las fuerzas armadas, lo que hará que nuestros hombres y mujeres estén seguros con su trabajo, además de honrar a las personas que ya han sido maltratadas por llevar el uniforme".