Obama Orders Homosexual Benefits

Special Report - Jun 7, 2010
Just a few days after officially proclaiming June “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month,” President Obama made good on his proclamation promise to “ensure that federal [LGBT] employees receive equal benefits.” In a Presidential Memorandum issued June 2, the president ordered the heads of all federal agencies and departments to “act within existing law” to extend additional benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of federal employees and their children, such as in the areas of family assistance (child care) and relocation expenses. The memo also specifies that, “In the future, all agencies that provide new benefits to the spouses of Federal employees and their children should, to the extent permitted by law, also provide them to the same-sex domestic partners of their employees and those same-sex domestic partners’ children.”

In a statement issued the same day, the president said, “While this Memorandum is an important step on the path to equality, my Administration continues to be prevented by existing Federal law from providing same-sex domestic partners with the full range of benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.” He called upon Congress to quickly pass the “Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act” (H.R. 2517 / S. 1102), which he said “would extend to the same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees the full range of benefits currently enjoyed by Federal employees’ opposite-sex spouses.”

Bill Brooks, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council, commented, “This latest move by the Obama administration to further extend federal benefits to unmarried homosexual employees and their partners is disappointing, to say the least. Domestic partner benefits are simply another attempt to undermine the institution of marriage by stripping it of the rights and privileges that traditionally set the marriage relationship apart from all other relationships, including same-sex relationships.”

“The president has stated his intentions to not only extend federal benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees but also to work to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for federal purposes as only between a man and woman,” added Brooks. “This memorandum is a stark reminder of why it is so important for North Carolina to shore up its marriage laws and ensure that the definition of marriage is preserved in our state constitution. The General Assembly needs to act on the Defense of Marriage legislation that would give the citizens of this state the opportunity to vote on a Marriage Protection Amendment.”

Copyright © 2010. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.