GLAD believes the suit may ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which would mark the first time the nation's highest court heard a major DOMA challenge. GLAD filed the suit, called Gill, et al vs. Office of Personnel Management, et al, on behalf of eight couples and three widowers, all from Massachusetts. Among the plaintiffs is Dean Hara, widower of the late Congressman Gerry Studds.Note that I said "smart -- from their perspective" above. That's because in Massachusetts they do have marriage equality at the state level, however, a federal challenge to DOMA only fuels the fire for the Religious Right, which will capitalize on this to stir up trouble in states that don't have an amendment -- like North Carolina. The fundies are already energized, as you saw in my earlier post. The lawsuit may have unintended and undesirable consequences for those of us fighting other battles.Janson Wu, an attorney for GLAD working on the case, said the plaintiffs have been denied a range of important benefits under DOMA, and these benefits will be the focus of the suit. The Office of Personnel Management, which administers federal employee benefits, turned down Hara's application to receive survivor benefits through Studds' federal pension, including health insurance; Hara currently pays about $7000 per year out of pocket for health insurance that other surviving spouses of federal employees would receive at no cost. Hara was also denied the lump sum Social Security death benefits used by spouses to pay for funeral costs.
..."Our legal argument is that [the portions of section three targeted in the lawsuit are] a violation of our federal government's guarantee to treat citizens equally by refusing to recognize the marriages only of same-sex couples, and that principle of equality should apply in other contexts if we're successful," said Wu. While GLAD believes the suit stands a strong chance of reaching the Supreme Court, Wu said it was too soon to tell how long it might take to get there.
...Wu said DOMA has done significant harm to same-sex couples married in Massachusetts, and with nearly five years of legal same-sex marriage under the Bay State's belt the time is ripe for a challenge. "[The case] certainly can and may reach the Supreme Court level, and we think the Supreme Court is receptive to these fundamental notions of equality and the balance between federal and state governments," said Wu.
So, what do you think -- is the timing right to pursue this? Is the scope of the complaint narrow enough to be decided favorably for the plaintiffs in the end?
The bible-beating set, with the support of the wingnuts in our General Assembly, some county boards and prominent Catholic bishops, are gathering today in downtown Raleigh to hold a Stand Up for Traditional Marriage" rally. The group is called Return Am erica, and they are urging passage of a marriage amendment bill submitted by Sen. Jim Forrester. Since we're the last State in the South without one, they hope to draw or bus in a huge number of fundamentalist extremists in. They held a similar outdoor event in 2007 that drew a few thousand people. (N&O):North Carolina law defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. But social conservatives want specific language added to the state constitution, arguing that a voter-approved amendment banning gay marriage would push back court challenges. Thirty states have such bans.Yeah,;Yeah, this embarrassing news conference, with Bishop Michael Burbidge of Raleigh and Peter Jugis of Charlotte, and other elected officials and homobigots.Gay rights supporters argue the state shouldn't write discrimination into the constitution. Religious leaders and lawmakers held a news conference last week promoting the amendment.
The fundies were also brought in for a rally in 2005, and they apparantly didn't proofread their placards:
Resident Margie Harvell on gay marriage at the 2005 rally: "God didn't ordain it that way, He created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
We may not be able to match the money machine of the NC Family Policy Council(an arm of Focus on the Family), but folks can donate to Equality NC and sign up for the Equality NC Action Network.
Last month I presented Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible at a conference in Seattle sponsored by the United Methodist Church. As I related in my blog post about it, the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) of the Pacific Northwest decided to focus primarily on transgender issues at the event.
After all the workshops and presentations, Shannon Buzzard, a minister and a trans woman, led a closing service that included a homily she crafted. In it she revealed the spaces where transgender people are so often invisible to non-trans people.
Shannon began with the following introduction:
This whole day has been about discussing what transgender is, transgender lives, and how transgender lives are mostly invisible to the community around us. I have a couple of stories I want to share with you. Some are mine, some are by other people. I am not going to tell you which are which. These are the stories that are invisible to you, but which happen to us all the time.
Then she began to share the stories. This first one is about employment.
In August 2005, I was hired by a smaller fabless semi-condudctor design firm . I started as a contractor, and it went well for the first 3 months. So well in fact that they offered me an employment position making slightly more than I was as a contractor.They liked me.
In sort-of negotiating with my direct report, I had stayed up late researching what pay scales were for my position , and I was shocked that people were getting paid that much. I thought I would be bold and ask for about $20k more than I'd ever gotten before, since it was still a bit less than the figures I'd seen. I asked if it might be ,maybe ok to get $X/year and the manager chuckled and said: " well since I was suggesting you get $15k MORE than that, I think we'll go with my figure".
14 months later, there was an issue. Our new HR person called and said that the Fidelity investments liaison person said that someone seemed be ?sharing? ?stealing? my social security number. I _freaked_... yes, I did used to have a 401k with them, before I had to spend it all to just pay taxes and minimal costs to avoid being homeless. Fidelity was not kind. They had already suggested to HR that well, she could be a victim of identity theft, a criminal, or (shocked pause) could she be transgender?
I called our Fidelity liason and I faxed my name change documents to him, and a form they had, and he said they would look into it.
Also we started working on a new "high security" project with another company. Still, I felt relative secure, I had recently gotten very good feedback from my direct manager, and had been told I was now reporting directly to the CEO. The next week I was given Stock Options, approved by the board.
A week after that, I was called into the conference room, about 4pm on a Friday,by the CEO and told: On Monday or Tuesday of the next week, I was setting up an office, for two visiting engineers from the San Jose office. This was right next to the Comptroller's office, and I couldn't help but overhear our admin asst/HR person, griping at the Comptroller about how she didn't know if she could work with this hermaphrodite/half-man half-woman THING.
Then...just 3 or 4 days later,I was called into the conference room, about 4pm on a Friday,by the CEO and told: "We really appreciate the hard work you've put in but realize that over the long term that things are just not going to work out. We wish you well in your future endeavors."
It was difficult to avoid crying. I felt very hurt.
I took the check, and signed the 20 page document and cried driving home.
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