I was pretty happy when I heard the news that Obama would be signing a memorandum extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. When the story began to solidify a bit more and it became clear that this action isn't anywhere near a whole pie since health care benefits -- arguably the most important part of an employee benefits package given how our national health care system "works" -- can't be included without legislation from congress, I remained happy-ish.* These things do have to start somewhere and yelling "It should have happened in 1999!" etc. is a waste of breath.
And I won't be holding any breath waiting for congress to take some action, even though a bill that would specifically allow extension of health benefits has been introduced. I'm sure Harry Reid will come up with some reason it has to be delayed while the Senate busys itself with other matters.
Anyway, in the short time since the news has broken, it looks like the gay world is already splitting into two camps on this.
Camp Chipper is happy to see movement, even small movement, on this issue because it's the kind of small step that can be leveraged into some very real, and very necessary larger steps. Chris Geidner has a nice summary of ways in which this can happen: "So, yes, we want and deserve more — but let’s use this step as the great tool that it can be to move our other priorities further forward."
Camp Downer looks at the Obama's upcoming announcement and sees a ploy to divert attention from his administration's disastrous few days on LGBT issues -- mainly the nasty DOMA defense brief -- and salvage next week's big gay Dem fundraiser, which is shedding donors left and right. They also rightly point out that, given the need for legislation for the most needed changes, this really isn't enough to warrant the LGBT community rolling over for a tummy rub. Pam Spaulding isn't having it: "No one is buying a partner benefit plan that doesn't include health insurance, for god's sake. Will he announce an effort to send Congress something to act on? Uh, keep dreaming - his DOJ just wrote up a brief that uses defenses against incest and underage marriage to claim our relationships are unworthy of equal treatment under the law. They can't unring that bell."
As is my wont, I'm torn. I really have a strong pragmatic streak and I think most of the changes we need to see have to start with single steps somewhere in the government. This is an admittedly small step, but if it's done correctly (we'll have to wait until 5:45 p.m. to see if the step gets off to a good start) then it could lead to some very real and needed changes for a lot of people. But the egregious DOMA brief and the awkward game of "you go first" between Obama and Congress on DADT repeal simply can't be excused or forgotten by one small adminstrative step. That would take, at minimum, a stop-loss order on discharges of gay and lesbian servicemembers.
The best I can offer at this point is that we remember that we can say, "Thanks. Now, what next?" Or, to borrow a phrase, trust but verify. I didn't anticipate that holding Obama accountable for his promises would be quite this difficult -- I wasn't so naive as to think it would be easy, but I didn't think it would be quite this hard. I continue to believe that financial spigots should be kept firmly in the off position, as this action is nowhere near enough to make up for the circus that is DADT and DOMA.
*Things are moving quickly, and stories about what, exactly, Obama's memorandum will do are varied: the Washington Post is still reporting the health benefits are part of the package, while Politico reflects the more prevalent view that DOMA blocks such benefits from being offered. We'll see tonight.
I take your point on the 1990s "complaint," though I think it's important for context.
After the DOJ brief I'm definately in Camp Downer, though I'd prefer to call it camp realist. My fear is that this is meant to placate us and get us to take our eye off the ball of DOMA and DADT repeal.
Posted by: Scott | June 17, 2009 at 10:31 AM