On Friday, Sept. 30 the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published a final rule in the Federal Register to provide eligible federal employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave for "qualifying exigency purposes." Just what are qualifying exigencies, you ask? Well, under the rule, qualifying exigencies arise when the spouse, son, daughter or parent of an employee is on active duty in the Armed Forces, or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty status.
Sounds simple enough, right? Providing the protections of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to federal employees whose spouse, son, daughter or parent is serving in the Armed Forces on active duty in a foreign country (or is about to) just makes sense as the right, common-sense thing to do. As OPM states in its summary of the rule, it is intended to help eligible federal employees manage family affairs when their family members are serving on active duty.
Particularly considering the post-"Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell" (DADT) world we currently live in, extending these protections to lesbian, gay and bisexual service members whose spouses are federal employees likewise seems like the fair, common-sense thing to do. However, DADT's demise left one remaining federal law that mandates federal discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation: the misnamed Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). And it is because of DOMA that those federal employees who have a same-sex spouse serving on active duty in a foreign country will not be included in the protections of this new federal rule.
If this strikes you as both senseless and heartless, I can simply say that it is yet another perfect illustration of the real-world harms DOMA has done to tens of thousands of married, same-sex couples and their children and families, while doing absolutely nothing to defend anyone's marriage.
When you dig deeper into the rule, the needless cruelty done to same-sex couples in which one member is serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, on active duty, no less, becomes even more striking. One of the qualifying exigencies I mentioned earlier is to "attend family support or assistance programs and informational briefings sponsored or promoted by the military, military service organizations, or the American Red Cross that are related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty status of a covered military member." Do same-sex couples in these situations deserve less family support? According to DOMA, the answer is yes. In fact, DOMA considers these married couples legal strangers under federal law.
It is a strange and sad irony that DADT's demise has allowed lesbian, gay and bisexual service members to serve their country openly and honestly, and yet the married same-sex spouses of these service members who are federal employees can be denied something as basic as the ability to use FMLA time to take part in family support services.
Enough is enough. DOMA needs to join DADT in history's trash bin. DOMA's continued existence does daily harm to tens of thousands of American families. Congress should act to repeal DOMA, the last remaining federal law that expressly discriminates against a group of Americans based purely on their sexual orientation. Tell Congress to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation that would completely repeal DOMA, today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-donius/doma-for-dummies_b_830228.html
You owe it to readers here and to the ACLU's reputation to be forthright and candid. There is NO CHANCE that DOMA can be repealed while the GOP controls the House of Representatives and is able to filibuster in the Senate.
You owe it to readers to tell them that the ONLY thing they will accomplish by signing the ACLU's call to pass the Respect for Marriage Act is they'll be providing their names and contact information to the ACLU.
No matter how much Justice cries out for the end of DOMA, the repeal of DOMA will (for the foreseeable future) require Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, including a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
DOMA is vile, DOMA may some day be found unconstitutional, but time and money spent right now on efforts to repeal DOMA are time and money that's wasted. It makes more sense to spend time and money working at state and local levels to advance equal rights wherever possible, and to fight against efforts to enshrine homophobia in new laws.
no use being pessimistic...it wouldn't work anyway.
I agree that there is virtually no chance this would be repealed before the elections. I also agree (cynically perhaps) that this will serve largely to increase the ACLU's mailing lists. I can never agree with you that time and money spent to achieve equality, regardless of how likely it is to succeed or fail, is ever a waste.
Working at the state level is a great idea and should definitely be taken up, but it will do me very little good at all. As someone who is facing exile (I'm moving to europe to be with my wife), what I need is for DOMA to be repealed, not for my individual state to legalize gay marriage.
One last note: we have precious few friends in the republican ranks, it's true. It's also true that without those few, NY would never have achieved marriage equality. It is possible.
It IS a waste of time and money to work on DOMA now, or worry about DOMA now, when it is simply impossible to do anything about DOMA now. And when it IS possible to do a great deal at the state and local level.
I realize that you may need DOMA to be repealed, but there is no force on Earth that is going to make that happen while the GOP controls either house of Congress. I'd love for it to be otherwise, but wishing doesn't make it so.
And on your last note, I appreciate that marriage equality passed in New York with the support of some GOP members of the state legislature.
But anyone who lives in or near New York also knows that the Empire state's GOP delegation bears little resemblance to the national GOP, or the GOP which dominates in Red states.