MAry Bonauto, an attorney with Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the group that is currently challenging DOMA in federal court, won't be attending next week's LGBT DNC Fundraiser, she writes, in Pam's House Blend:
"It would be counterproductive at this point for me to attend the
dinner. I see and understand the anger of many in the community. At
GLAD, we're angry, too. We're angry because we see and live and feel
the discrimination every day. Many states and our national government
enforce existing anti-gay laws or simply fail to see discrimination
against lgbt people as both personally devastating and a stain on our
nation's commitment to equal justice under law….as you can imagine, we had a very particular interest in reading how
the Obama Department of Justice would tackle the Smelt DOMA challenge
in California, even though it does not deal with concrete harms imposed
by DOMA. All we knew in advance is that it would be different from the
Bush administration's response, and it was. At the same time, some
things in this new brief were startling; while others were silly, wrong
or offensive or all of the above."
