Obama Forced to Make Major LGBT Rights Decision in Next Five Weeks

by Michael Jones · 2009-05-20 05:58:00 UTC
Topics:

Obama

A lawsuit filed by the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) will now force the Obama administration to take a stand on the future of DOMA in the next five weeks.  The U.S. Department of Justice, the branch of the government which typically defends Congressional laws, needs to respond to GLAD's court filing by June 22, and in their response they must determine whether they will argue against DOMA, or in support of it.

Organizers have launched a campaign, domaflipflop.com, which is pressuring the Obama administration not to turn its back on campaign promises to support the overturning of DOMA.  As they point out:

Presidents have the option of refusing to defend a law they view as unconstitutional on its face, of which there is no clearer example than DOMA (Defense Of Marriage Act).  President Obama himself has called the law “abhorrent” and he’s a constitutional law professor.  Given these premises, we feel that President Obama should refuse to defend DOMA and should instead instruct his Department of Justice to join GLAD in this historic lawsuit.

To help put pressure on the Obama administration, they are urging people to send postcards in the shape of flip-flops to the White House, with a message pleading for Obama not to "flip-flop" on his campaign promise to get rid of DOMA.   They've got a Facebook page, too, for anyone interested in joining their efforts.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Kenyan Bishop Calls Homosexuality "Un-African"
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (10)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.