- President Obama extended certain benefits to the domestic partners of federal employees that are available to the opposite-sex spouses of employees. They do not include health insurance or retirement benefits, however.
- You’ve probably heard by now that President Obama has issued a proclamation for Pride Month. Here’s my more in-depth piece looking at how his proclamations compare to those of President Clinton, and what that tells us about changes in LGBT rights in the last decade.
- The Department of Defense announced ten appointees to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS), an independent advisory committee on matters related to the recruitment, retention, and well-being of women in the armed forces. They include Retired Army Reserve Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, the highest-ranking member of the armed services ever to be discharged because of her sexual orientation, and Retired Army Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy, a vocal supporter of repealing DADT, who will chair the Committee.
- The California assembly passed a bill to ensure that registered same-sex couples have the same access to unemployment benefits as married, opposite-sex couples. It now goes to the state senate.
- Lesbian mom Mary Cheney, daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, Mary Cheney, is a board member of group now producing commercials attacking a rival of of anti-LGBT Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum in the race for the GOP nomination for governor.
- A Brazilian man was granted temporary permission to stay with his Massachusetts husband after Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) asked Attorney General Eric Holder to grant him asylum on humanitarian grounds.
Around the world:
- A couple in Malawi who had been jailed for homosexuality (although it now appears one of them is a transgender woman), was released, but may be re-imprisoned if they offend again.
- A man and a transgender woman were jailed in Pakistan on the suspicion that they tried to marry (and violated the country’s law against “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”), but now appear to have been released on bail. (Last link uses terminology I would not consider accurate or appropriate, but it’s the only source I’ve seen so far.)
I’m glad to see that they are putting some “Correct” minded (vs. “Right” minded) women on DACOWITS. I don’t know much about Margarethe Cammermeyer (other than being one us queer folk), but Claudia Kennedy sure sounds like she will kick butt!