News that John Berry, Obama’s highest ranking gay, oversaw yet another administration-approved denial of gay rights should no longer be a surprise. This is status quo.
Buried in the Thanksgiving news cycle is a report that Berry’s Office of Personnel Management — which oversees some million-plus federal employees — has been told by a U.S. Court of Appeals judge to butt the fuck out of his earlier ruling demanding the federal government provide spousal benefits to Karen Golinski’s wife, who she married in California before Prop 8.
Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit — appointed by President Ronald Reagan as a conservative and described by one blogger as the “Brangelina of the federal judiciary” — has given Obama’s lawyers 30 days to respond to the order, which surfaced after OPM rejected Golinski’s insurance filing. And while Kozinski isn’t directly involving himself in the gay rights fight, the outcome is inevitable is Obama directs OPM to once again challenge the ruling.
Kozinski’s unusual and bluntly worded Golinski order comes 10 months after the judge, acting in his capacity as administrator in an employee dispute resolution, determined that the federal Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts had erred in rejecting Golinski’s inclusion of her wife on her insurance election form. Sidestepping constitutional questions about equal treatment for gays under the law, he agreed that the Defense of Marriage Act forbids the government from recognizing gay marriages. But Kozinski’s argument centers on the Federal Health Benefits Act, which says that coverage must be provided for an employee’s family, including a spouse and children under the age of 21. While the Administration interpreted that as meaning the coverage could only be provided for couples whose marriages are recognized under federal law, Kozinski reasoned that the law should be seen as setting a minimum standard for coverage, and that policies could include grandparents living at home, children until they are 25 or, as in Golinski’s case, a woman with whom she is raising a child and is married to under state law.
And if OPM — and, thus, Obama — doesn’t comply? Kozinski is gonna take off his gold hoops, fake nails, and grab that razor from underneath his tongue and get nasty with the feds, using his bench to require the Executive Branch to comply. And if the Justice Department has anything to do with it, we’ll be booking front row seats to another slow paced gay rights courtroom brawl. One involving OPM’s Berry, who, uh, we’re supposed to be championing as a symbol of Obama’s commitment to queer Americans.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
But for what it’s worth, we know the battle will be entertaining. Kozinski is a man who, after all, likes to win while others are watching:
Attmay
I predicted Obama would be bad news for us back in 2007 after Donnie McClurkin. I accept your apologies.
Brian NJ
Good Judge, and looks like a great kisser. Bravo for him, F for Ofucktard.
1EqualityUSA
Too fun. I need to go paint. Queerty is like an island with fruit and fresh water in an internet sea.
andy
I’m ready to start voting Green again. I hope someone from the Democratic party is reading this.
Bill Perdue
What will it take to convince those still operating under the illusion that the Democrats are our friends? Democrat office holders and officials are as much our enemies as their Republican counterparts.
The difference is that Democrats lie more often than Republicans. They claim to be our fierce defenders but gave us DADT and DOMA and gutted ENDA. The DNC is at least as bad as the RNC. The DNC is dominated by a homohating Dixiecrat, Tim Kaine, and Leah Daughtry, an ordained pentecostal bigot who lost a lawsuit claiming that she used anti-GLBT discriminatory hiring and firing practices. Both are anti-GLBT and anti-choice.
The WH is infested with bigots like ordained pentecostal bigot Joshua Dubois who organized Obama’s outreach to christian bigots utilizing Warren and McClurkin and now bribes the same sorry group of pulpit pimps using our money and the ‘faith based’ charities scam. Biden voted for DOMA. Obama stabbed us in the back appealing to bigot voters with ‘gawd’s in the mix’.
Democrats in Congress, except for a tiny minority. are either bigots or pander to bigots. They gutted ENDA and dropped it and the hate crimes bill in 2007 and it’s unlikely they’ll repeal DOMA or DADT (unless causalities shoot up).
How many more times will party line followers try to tell us that the Democrats are better? How many more times will they say that Republicans and Nazis and that Democrats are liberals? The truth is that both parties are right centrist and march in lockstep on key questions like the wars, stealing from the poor and workers and giving to the rich, promoting bigotry, racism, misogyny and immigrant bashing and opposing socialized medicine.
greenluv1322
I agree with Bill Purdue.