Making good on a promise to sue the federal government after OPM denied benefits to federal court staff attorney Karen Golinski’s lesbian partner, Lambda Legal has formally filed suit against the Obama administration. Yahoo! Except:
This really isn’t a Defense of Marriage Act case: Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management — which was filed filed in San Francisco’s 9th Circuit, where Golsinki works, and the same place that’s currently hearing Perry v. Schwarzenegger — is foremost an attempt to get the federal government to “[enforce] Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski’s administrative order that Golinski be allowed to add her wife to her family health insurance plan,” relays Chris Geidner. “The lawsuit does not allege that DOMA is unconstitutional. In fact, it doesn’t even raise the issue of DOMA’s constitutionality.”
Bummer. ‘Cause those liberal Ninth Circuit judges love themselves some gays.
Phil D.
Hmm, so what would be a “Perry-sized DOMA challenge”? One that directly takes on the constitutionality of DOMA? Oh wait, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (of “Gay Inc.” fame) is pursuing exactly that type of case. But I’m sure you can find fault in that one too, right? Because there’s no way anyone in Gay Inc. could be doing anything useful, since they’re all just blowing those huge salaries on prostitutes and island vacations…
Mike in Asheville
@Phil D.: Prostitutes and island vacations?…where do I sign-up?
The reality of “Gay, Inc.” is that in the day that gay men were dying by the score (I’m 50, been HIV+ for at least 26 years) the gay community, after a couples of years of running ape-shit scared, came together as a community to fight for HIV/AIDS funding and civil rights. The new Gay, Inc. groups formed and existing one grew, and, very significantly, the lesbian community jumped in to carry more than their fair share of the burden (they weren’t dying, gay men were).
There were many many challenges and the LGBT community, with the leadership from many Gay, Inc. groups, led the way.
Times have changed, and Gay, Inc. organizations have been slow to evolve. But that does not mean that Gay, Inc. is useless. Just as Gay, Inc. filled a vacuum in leading LGBT issues, new groups have jumped in to fill the vacuums created by Gay, Inc. I went to my first marriage equality community awareness meeting in Malibu in 1995 raising funds for the Hawaii marriage equality fight. At that time, HRC, NCLR, ACLU and Barney Frank were adamantly opposed to the cause — not because there were against marriage equality, but because there were seriously important issues involving funding for HIV/AIDS research, prevention, and care. My boyfriend and I quite HRC over this. NONETHELESS, had it not been for Gay, Inc.’s enduring fight for the issues they felt were most important, it would have been years and years longer to develop the drug treatments that now keep HIV+ guys alive.
I strongly believe that marriage equality and civil rights deserve fighting for and defending on multi-levels by all organizations on all fronts. It annoys the fuck out of me to see so much energy and effort wasted with one group attacking another instead of putting all efforts against our homophobic bigoted slanderous asshole detractors.
Fortunately, there are those with enough gumption to start a new crusading effort when they see a hole in the efforts to achieve marriage equality and civil rights. What is truly amazing is that 20 years ago, the term “marriage equality” did not even exist. Now, due to the efforts of those who saw a huge hole in the efforts of the then existing Gay, Inc. battlefronts, marriage equality is the issue of today and tomorrow. And as someone who has witnessed this history while fighting HIV/AIDS, I can’t quite express just how happy it makes me that, while still a critical issue, HIV/AIDS with all its death and destruction, has been supplanted with marriage equality with its shows of love and family.