The Road Ahead

On Nov. 4, 2008, Americans gathered across the country, in red states and blue, in homes, in Times Square, and in Grant Park to witness history being made. As the polls closed on the West Coast, we learned that Barack Obama would be the 44th president of the United States. As he had on many important occasions, President-elect Obama included the LGBT community in his victory speech. In the United States Senate and in the Illinois Legislature, President-elect Obama has been a consistent supporter of LGBT rights. As the night progressed, pro-equality candidates beat out anti-equality incumbents in several congressional races, improving the legislative outlook.

 

The Executive Branch

Transition

For the next 2 1/2 months, President-elect Obama and his advisers will be engaged in a transition of unprecedented proportions. In order to staff the massive federal civilian work force, they must hire new leadership for Cabinet-level agencies. Starting Jan. 20, the new executive branch leadership will have to generate a plan to correct eight years of the Bush administration’s policy mistakes, cronyism and mismanagement of government, become familiar with its large staff of career employees (not political appointees, who make up less than 1 percent of the federal work force), and fill the positions that are not yet staffed. In addition, many of the top appointments require Senate confirmation, which means that the executive departments might not be fully staffed for some time.

Executive branch policy

President-elect Obama will inherit two wars, a housing and financial crisis, and eight years of Bush administration mismanagement and bad policies. Americans have expressed in overwhelming numbers that righting our faltering economy is their No. 1 priority. Indeed, LGBT Americans face the same challenges, exacerbated by discrimination and being denied the social safety net that other families have. Therefore, although there are many ways that this administration can and will make a positive change, we must be strategic as we work to achieve our goals, and remain cognizant that many national priorities must be addressed in the near term.

In the near term, we can expect increased non-discrimination protections for federal workers, with the exit of Special Counsel Scott Bloch and a new leadership who will enforce civil service laws; changes to Department of Health and Human Services regulations that bar HIV-positive travelers from entering the U.S.; and an influx of LGBT and LGBT-friendly officials in key positions who will be open to policy proposals affecting the community.

In the long term, there are dozens of policy changes that can be made even without congressional action. From ensuring that children raised by LGBT couples are protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act, to expanding protections for lesbian and gay foreign service officers’ families, to eliminating the unfair burdens that transgender people face in traveling and in acquiring identity documents, to improving research and education on HIV and AIDS, a new administration can make a difference for our community. HRC is poised to utilize our technical expertise, lobbying resources and familiarity with the executive branch to promote these policy proposals. This is a multi-year process, the groundwork for which we are carefully laying now.

Fair-minded judicial appointments

President-elect Obama, an accomplished constitutional scholar with a track record of opposing President Bush’s extremist nominees to the courts, will appoint only judges and justices who understand that the Constitution protects liberty and equality for everyone, and grants Congress the power to enact legislation such as hate crimes and ENDA. These appointments will ensure that generations of LGBT Americans see progress toward equality.

Almost 40 years after Congress first enacted a federal hate crimes law, it is our moral obligation to continue striving for equality, and ensure that the federal government, along with state and local jurisdictions, have the tools necessary to effectively prosecute these crimes. Given the rise in hate crimes nationally, failure to pass this vital legislation is truly unacceptable.”

– Sen. Barack Obama, 2007

 

Legislative Outlook

Hate Crimes

In 2007, Congress came closer than ever to enacting federal hate crimes legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of categories protected by federal hate crimes law. However, President Bush’s veto threat required Senate leadership to place hate crimes legislation on a “must-pass” bill — in this case, the Department of Defense reauthorization — to have a chance of being signed. Ultimately, the president’s threat to veto any bill with hate crimes legislation on it, combined with the Iraq war politics that complicated the DoD bill, kept this important legislation from passing for yet another Congress. President-elect Obama is a supporter and co-sponsor of the Matthew Shepard Act, and has indicated that he will sign the bill when it comes to his desk. With an increase in supportive members in both the House and Senate and continued fair-minded leadership, hate crimes legislation is likely to pass and be signed into law in 2009.

ENDA

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a key piece of legislation for our community for more than 15 years, saw two milestones in the 110th Congress. A bill including the entire community was introduced for the first time, with 184 co-sponsors, in the House. Second, a sexual orientation-only version of the bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 235-184, with 35 Republicans voting year.

Unfortunately, an ENDA inclusive of our entire community did not have sufficient support to make it to the House floor for a vote. President Bush’s advisers publicly recommended he veto even the sexual orientation-only ENDA.

Increased numbers of fair-minded lawmakers in both the House and the Senate, and the leadership of a fair-minded president, significantly improve the chances of an inclusive ENDA moving forward. With White House support of the bill, rather than a veto threat, and larger numbers of supportive lawmakers to fight procedural roadblocks, our friends in House and Senate leadership will be better equipped to move this critical legislation.

However, the hurdles remain steep. Because an inclusive ENDA has never been introduced in the Senate and the bill has had fewer hearings and votes than hate crimes legislation, this bill will need further education of members and their constituents to move than hate crimes legislation.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

In 2008, Congress held its first hearing to assess the damage wrought by the wrong-headed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. With a president who supports repeal and increasing public sentiment in favor of open service by lesbian and gay service members, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will not stand. However, with two wars being fought, and after eight years of all civil rights groups wandering in the wilderness, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal is unlikely to be on the fast track.

Family Matters

In 2008, the Government Reform Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held the first-ever hearing on the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act (“DPBO”), which would provide equal family benefits to lesbian and gay federal civilian workers. Along with the Tax Equity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act, DPBO is one of HRC’s “family matters” priorities — legislation that will improve the lives of LGBT families. In 2009 and 2010, HRC will work to increase co-sponsorship of these and other bills to protect families and to secure hearings and committee action. President-elect Obama was a co-sponsor of both bills when he served in the Senate, and favors full federal benefits for LGBT families.

HIV/AIDS

In the 110th Congress, significant progress was made to remove ideologically driven restrictions that harm prevention efforts and stigmatize people with HIV and AIDS, including a long-standing prohibition on the use of local funds in the District of Columbia for proven needle-exchange programs and a statutory ban on HIV-positive visitors and immigrants. At the same time, however, Congress again provided millions of dollars for the unscientific, ineffective abstinence-only sex education programs championed by the Bush administration and underfunded critical HIV prevention, treatment and research efforts through the Ryan White CARE Act. President-elect Obama supports comprehensive sex education aimed at preventing the spread of HIV and robust funding of the Ryan White CARE Act, as well as early treatment of HIV under Medicaid. HRC will work to ensure that, with more fair-minded lawmakers in Congress and a supportive president, our nation’s taxpayer dollars are spent on prevention and treatment programs based in sound science, not ideology. And as healthcare reform is likely to take center stage early in 2009, HRC will work to ensure that the critical needs of people with HIV/AIDS are part of those health proposals.

DOMA

Although President-elect Obama opposes DOMA, a repeal bill is unlikely to be an early priority at this time. It is important to repeal DOMA, but doing so would not provide protections to the majority of LGBT Americans, whose states do not recognize marriage equality. In order to address the pressing need to protect as many LGBT people as possible and to move consensus legislation, LGBT advocates and allies will focus on legislation to provide specific benefits, such as eliminating tax penalties on health benefits, expanding family and medical leave rights, and providing equal compensation to LGBT federal employees.