05/18/2009
Rep. Berman Introduces Bill Correcting State Dept. Gay Inequities
Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 (H.R. 2410) late last week, which covers a broad range of foreign policy and diplomacy issues, one of which is to "end the long-standing practice of excluding the committed partners of
Foreign Service officers from the benefits routinely provided to the
spouses and children of officers serving abroad."
UN Dispatch reports: "The provision now must make its way through the budget process, including the conference committee where many-a-well intentioned proposal hits the chopping block. But in this case, it would be hard to imagine that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is lead by Chairman John Kerry and the moderate republic ranking member Richard Lugar, would do anything to strip out this provision."
In February, Rep. Tammy Baldwin sent a letter co-signed by Senators Russ Feingold and Ron Wyden, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking that inequities be remedied. Clinton said that such remedies were "on a fast timeline."
Posted 12:41 PM EST by Andy Towle in Gay Rights, Hillary Clinton, News | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
It's great to see Hillary respond to such questions and do so in the fashion that she promised. She certainly would've been a better ally at this time on gay rights, no doubt.
Posted by: Andrew | May 18, 2009 1:01:30 PM
Then why hasn't she stepped up and instructed the Passport Agency to allow name changes on passports of same sex couples who married and changed their names?
She has the power, but she was, during the campaign, no different than Obama: She believes in equal rights, she says, so long as gay couples can't use the word marriage.
Posted by: Danny | May 18, 2009 6:35:27 PM
To Danny: Clinton ordering the Passport Agency to allow name changes based off same-sex marriages would be a clear violation of the federal recognition ban portion of DOMA. She may be an ally, but she's not about to break the law. No matter how bad it is, it's still the law she MUST follow.
Posted by: JOSH | May 19, 2009 12:57:52 AM