The NYT’s Caucus blog has an article entitled Obama Invites Gay Rights Advocates to White House. The White House cocktail party is set to take place on Monday, June 29, one day after the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, the 1969 Greenwich Village demonstrations that gave birth to the modern gay rights movement. The event is likely an effort to defuse mounting anger among LGBT organizations over the Obama Administration’s failure to honor its commitment to reverse discriminatory federal laws like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
As the NY Times article states, “Whether Mr. Obama will address the complaints at Monday’s reception is unclear. One person who received the invitation said the White House was billing the event as a celebration, akin to the festive affairs the administration holds on St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo.”
To date, DADT still remains the law despite a campaign promise to reverse it and the President has failed to block the dismissal of gays and lesbians facing courts martial for disclosing their sexual orientation. Moreover, the DOJ earlier this month filed a brief in support of its motion to dismiss the complaint in Smelt v. United States, the first gay marriage case filed in federal court challenging DOMA. The language in the brief included this argument at pages 27-28:
Section 3 of DOMA merely clarifies that federal policy is to make certain benefits available only to those persons united in heterosexual marriage, as opposed to any other possible relationship defined by law, family, or affection. As a result, gay and lesbian individuals who unite in matrimony are denied no federal benefits to which they were entitled prior to their marriage; they remain eligible for every benefit they enjoyed beforehand. DOMA simply provides, in effect, that as a result of their same-sex marriage they will not become eligible for the set of benefits that Congress has reserved exclusively to those who are related by the bonds of heterosexual marriage.
As the NY Times article states, “Whether Mr. Obama will address the complaints at Monday’s reception is unclear. One person who received the invitation said the White House was billing the event as a celebration, akin to the festive affairs the administration holds on St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo.”
