All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

The law that prohibits openly gay servicemen from serving in the military may be repealed as an amendment to the 2011 Defense Department budget bill, the Washington Blade reports.

The repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) rule should be a part of the defense budget, much like the recent extension of hate crimes protections for LGBT citizens, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told the Blade. Frank is one of three openly gay members of the House.

"The House will take up and the Senate will take up 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal," Frank reportedly said. "That will again, like hate crimes, even more so, will have to be done, I believe, in the context of the defense authorization. You can't do the standalone bill. It belongs in the defense authorization."

A bill has been introduced in the House to repeal the measure, and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) may introduce a similar bill in the Senate.

DADT was enacted through a defense authorization bill in 1993, the Blade points out.

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Jane Hamsher, the founder of liberal blog FireDogLake.com, said in an interview Tuesday that the liberal base is "worried" about the Obama administration and may "stay home" in the 2010 midterm elections.

Hamsher compared the current situation to the 1994 elections, when, she said, the Democratic base (including union members) was demoralized and disengaged following the passage of The North American Free Trade Agreement. Republicans took control of both the House and Senate in that contest.

She argued that the Obama administration is paying little attention to its base even as the opposition gins up support among the Republican base with events like the Tea Party protests.

"If you're suppressing your base, and the other side is revving up theirs, and midterm elections are all about turning out the base, I sort of question what their strategy is here," she said.

Hamsher has signed on to a financial boycott of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America (the DNC-run operation to mobilize Obama supporters) and the Obama campaign. The boycott was organized by Americablog's John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay over what they see as President Obama and his party's failure to keep its commitments to the gay and lesbian community.

"LGBT Americans, our families, and our friends kept our promise at the ballot box, we now expect President Obama to keep his in the White House," they wrote. In addition to Hamsher, cosponsors include the liberal blog Daily Kos, writer and editor Dan Savage and radio host Michelangelo Signorile.

The boycott will be lifted, Aravosis and Sudbay write, when legislation is signed enacting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell and repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama pledged action on all these issues but has not pressed them since entering office.

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Senator Joe Lieberman, the Democrat-turned-Independent from Connecticut, appears to be taking the lead in the Senate to expand gay rights.

President Obama has been working with Lieberman to create a strategy to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans openly gay servicemen from the military, the Advocate reports.

"On 'don't ask, don't tell,' this administration is talking directly to the Hill -- we are in direct discussions with Senator Lieberman," John Berry, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, told the Advocate. Berry is the administration's highest-ranking, openly gay official.

On Saturday, the president restated his promise to end the ban.

A spokesman for Lieberman confirmed that the senator, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, had been speaking to the White House about the bill, the Advocate reports. The spokesman, however, gave no other information regarding the senator's plans.

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Last week, House Republican Leader John Boehner objected to House passage of a bill that would expand hate crime laws and make it a federal crime to assault people on the basis of their sexual orientation.

"All violent crimes should be prosecuted vigorously, no matter what the circumstance," he said. "The Democrats' 'thought crimes' legislation, however, places a higher value on some lives than others. Republicans believe that all lives are created equal, and should be defended with equal vigilance."

Based on that statement, CBSNews.com contacted Boehner's office to find out if the minority leader opposes all hate crimes legislation. The law as it now stands offers protections based on race, color, religion and national origin.

In an email, Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said Boehner "supports existing federal protections (based on race, religion, gender, etc) based on immutable characteristics."

It should be noted that the current law does not include gender, though the expanded legislation would cover gender as well as sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.

"He does not support adding sexual orientation to the list of protected classes," Smith continued.

Boehner's position, then, appears to be grounded in the notion that immutable characteristics should be protected under hate crimes laws. And while religion is an immutable characteristic, his office suggests, sexual orientation is not.

Northeastern University professor Jack Levin, who co-authored the first book written about hate crimes, told Hotsheet that "to use immutability as a criterion doesn't make any sense at all."

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Updated 4:40 p.m. ET

Despite not yet having fulfilled his campaign promises to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning gays from serving openly in the military or the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, President Obama spoke to a largely supportive audience at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, the gay civil rights advocacy group, on Saturday night.

But at a march for equality the next day organized by a younger generation critical of the HRC and other established gay rights organizations, gay activists signaled that their patience with the president has grown thin.

Not long after the march ended, NBC News' John Harwood reported that the White House is not terribly bothered about the criticism coming from gay rights groups. Citing an Obama administration adviser, Harwood said because the president is "doing well with 90 percent or more of Democrats," the White House "views this opposition as really part of the Internet left fringe."

Harwood added that the White House believes that its opposition from the left, including bloggers, "need to take off the pajamas, get dressed, and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult."

The report inflamed bloggers and once again spotlighted the tension between the march organizers, who railed against "incrementalism" in the equal rights movement, and the establishment HRC, where the president was hailed Saturday as the best friend gays have ever had in the White House.

"So the gay community, and its concerns about President Obama's inaction, and backtracking, on DADT and DOMA, are now, according to President Obama's White House, part of a larger 'fringe' that acts like small children who play in their pajamas and need to grow up…" wrote gay activist John Aravosis on Americablog. "I wonder how the Human Rights Campaign is going to explain how the White House just knifed our community less than 24 hours after he went to their dinner and claimed he was our friend."

On Monday afternoon, the White House disavowed the report, saying the administration does not see gay critics are part of an "Internet left fringe."

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During the presidential campaign, then-Senator Barack Obama promised to end "Don't ask, don't tell" - the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military - and promised to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 federal law defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.

CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports that because the president has yet to deliver on the promises he made to the gay community, gay rights advocates are concerned.

"He says all of the right things, but now it's time for him to put his money where his mouth is," said actress Cynthia Nixon.

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Updated 2:44 p.m. ET

President Obama plans to speak at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday, the White House announced today.

The Human Rights Campaign bills itself as "America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality." President Clinton addressed the group in 1997, making him the only president to do so thus far.

The speech will come one day before the National Equality March on Washington, where participants will call for equal rights for gays, lesbians and transgendered people.

"We are honored to share this night with President Obama, who has called upon our nation to embrace LGBT people as brothers and sisters," Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese said.

The president has taken strong criticism from the gay community for not following through on his promise to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning gays in the military or overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, among other issues tied to gay rights.

"Eleven months after his election, he has failed to deliver on any of his commitments to gay Americans, but even worse has been his refusal to engage around these issues," Richard Socarides, an advisor to former President Bill Clinton on gay and lesbian policy, told the Associated Press.

An Obama administration Justice Department brief defending DOMA earlier this year was labeled homophobic by gay activists and came under criticism from Solmonese. Gay leaders were also upset over the president's decision to invite Rev. Rick Warren to participate in his inauguration. (Pictured above: A May protest against Mr. Obama by gay rights activists.)

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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), at left, has announced, in a press release, that the Senate Armed Service Committee will hold a hearing this fall on the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Signed into law by former President Clinton, the policy forbids openly gay and lesbian personnel from serving in the military. According to the press release, an estimated 13,000 service members have been removed from duty since 1993 based on their sexual orientation.

According to a report from the Center for American Progress, 265 people have been discharged since President Obama took office.

"This policy is wrong for our national security and wrong for the moral foundation upon which our country was founded,'" Gillibrand said. "'Don't ask, don't Tell' is an unfair, outdated measure that violates the civil rights of some of our bravest, most heroic men and women. By repealing this policy, we will increase America's strength - both militarily and morally."

Gillibrand also said such measures are costly, saying that it takes $95.1 million to replace gay personnel with new recruits.

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Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Iraq war veteran, today called for an end to the "discriminatory" policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" that prohibits gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

"The policy is not working for armed services, and it hurts our national security," Murphy (pictured at left) said at a speech at Washington's National Press Club, where he appeared with gay and straight service members supporting repeal of the policy.

The event was a kickoff to the "Voices Of Honor" national tour sponsored by gay rights groups the Human Rights Campaign and Servicemembers United that features members of the military who oppose the Clinton-era compromise that allows gays to serve only if they keep their sexuality a secret. Murphy's office also helped set up a Web site called www.letthemserve.com.

"Opponents of lifting the ban argue that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly will be detrimental to unit cohesion and morale," the congressman said. "As a former officer and West Point professor, that is an insult to me and to all of the troops serving in uniform. In Iraq, my men did not care what race, color, creed or sexual orientation their fellow paratroopers were. They cared about getting the job done. We cared about serving with honor and coming home alive." (Watch Murphy's full remarks here.)

Murphy vowed to take the lead in pushing through Congress the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would overturn the policy. He noted that President Obama has vowed to sign the bill if it crosses his desk and said it is Congress' responsibility to make that happen.

The president has taken heat from gay rights groups for not pushing harder for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" or the Defense Of Marriage Act, something he promised to work toward as a candidate. Gay rights groups were particularly outraged by a brief filed by the Obama Justice Department defending DOMA that compared gay marriage to marriage between family members.

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President Obama, who has come under harsh criticism from gay rights advocates for not yet acting on many campaign promises on gay issues, Monday afternoon said that his administration has made some progress on behalf of gay Americans and plans to do more.

"I know that many in this room don't believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that," Mr. Obama said at a reception for LGBT Pride Month at the White House. "It's not for me to tell you to be patient anymore than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago."

"But I say this: We have made progress," the president continued. "And we will make more. And I want you to know that I expect and hope to be judged not by words, not by promises I've made, but by the promises that my administration keeps."

"We've been in office six months now," he said. "I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."

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