HRC Blog

As you’ll recall, last June, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum identifying additional changes that federal agencies could make to extend certain benefits to same-sex couples without action by Congress. One of the changes he identified will make it easier for federal employees to ensure that their same-sex partners can receive part of their retirement benefits after they die. Earlier this month, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued proposed regulations that will put that change into effect, making it easier for a retiring federal worker to set up a “insurable interest annuity” for his or her same-sex partner. These new regulations will eliminate an onerous and invasive process for same-sex couples, treating same-sex domestic partners in the same way as different-sex spouses, with the presumption that a partner, like a spouse, is eligible for the annuity. This proposed change was part of HRC’s Blueprint for Positive Change, a document recommending policy changes that could be made by the administration to better the lives of LGBT people.

American voters oppose the Defense of Marriage Act – the law that forbids the federal government from recognizing legally married same-sex couples – as well as efforts by the House Republican leadership to intervene in court cases defending the law, according to new polling released by the Human Rights Campaign in partnership with Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. 51 percent of voters oppose DOMA while 34 percent favor it. Independent voters, who were instrumental in the Republican House takeover, oppose the law by a 52 percent to 34 percent margin. Additionally, when read statements for and against defending DOMA in court, 54 percent of voters oppose the House Republicans' intervention, while only 32 percent support it.

US News & World Report yesterday published two pieces on DOMA’s constitutionality (or lack thereof)… one from HRC's President Joe Solmonese and the other from the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins. Both are available at www.usnews.com/doma. Here’s a sampling of what Joe wrote in "The Defense of Marriage Act Is Unconstitutional Discrimination":

This past Wednesday, the Human Rights Campaign and Marriage Equality New York teamed up for a joint volunteer event in Kew Gardens, Queens which produced big results. All evening we signed-up new volunteers and had them do ‘stop and dials’ -- a grass roots activity we use to encourage constituents to call their state Senator on the spot to ask for their of support of full marriage rights. We took all this great action as commuters waited for their evening bus ride home. We also collected hand written letters. In total, we collected 86 letters & made several calls to our NY State Senators!

Conversations about safe schools are often focused on elementary, middle and high school students. But college and university students remain vulnerable to the mental and emotional struggles associated with being a victim of bullying and harassment.