National
Married gay couples reap benefits from DOMA ruling
But some encounter confusion, delays from employers
Mary Glantz and Michelle Schohn of Arlington, Va., at their Provincetown, Mass., wedding in November 2009. (Photo courtesy of Michelle Schohn)
The majority of legally married gay couples with whom the Washington Blade has spoken in recent days said they have had little difficulty receiving benefits for their spouses after the U.S. Supreme Court found a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.
Michelle Schohn of Arlington, Va., a State Department employee who married her partner of 14 years, Mary Glantz, in Provincetown, Mass., in 2009, told the Blade on Tuesday from Estonia that the agency’s HR personnel recognized the couple as married “within hours” after she faxed them a copy of their marriage license. The couple was also able to update their federal life insurance policy.
Schohn said the USAA also pre-approved her and Glantz for a mortgage to potentially buy a home in Maryland as a married couple.
“It’s been amazingly straight-forward and very easy,” Schohn, who was the president of the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies from 2008-2009, said. “The several people that I’ve worked with so far have been very friendly and accommodating. I haven’t had any kind of pushback from anyone.”
The Office of Personnel Management on June 28 issued a memorandum that outlined the benefits for which legally married gay and lesbian federal employees and their children or stepchildren are now eligible. These include health, dental, vision, life and long-term insurance, retirement benefits and the ability to submit claims for medical expenses through flexible spending accounts.
Alex Hardin, who works in the State Department’s Bureau of European Affairs, told the Blade during GLIFAA’s monthly happy hour at the Capitol Skyline Hotel in Southwest D.C. on Tuesday that he and his partner, who is from Japan, are planning to get married in the nation’s capital later this summer.
The DOMA decision opened the door for legally married gays and lesbians to sponsor their foreign-born partners for immigration purposes.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on July 1 said her agency will treat marriage-based green card applications from same-sex bi-national couples the same as those submitted by heterosexuals.
Hardin’s partner already has a green card, but he told the Blade the Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling eliminates any uncertainty over the status of their relationship once they tie the knot.
“Now we can feel more comfortable knowing that we’re going to be married, we’re going to have the rights and privileges of everybody else,” Hardin said.
Eleven states and D.C. currently allow same-sex marriage. Gays and lesbians will be able to legally tie the knot in Minnesota and Rhode Island on Aug. 1.
The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday filed a lawsuit that challenges Pennsylvania’s statuary ban on nuptials for gays and lesbians. The group also plans to contest constitutional amendments in Virginia and North Carolina that define marriage as between a man and a woman.
The ACLU and the National Center for Lesbian Rights in March petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court to rule on whether same-sex couples can legally marry in the state. Same-sex marriage lawsuits have also been filed in Michigan and Nevada, while motions have been filed in Illinois and New Jersey that seek expedited rulings in cases that seek nuptials for gays and lesbians in the two states.
The Human Rights Campaign, Freedom to Marry and other groups have also launched campaigns to challenge same-sex marriage bans in Arkansas, Florida, Oregon and other states.
Missy Novak of South Deerfield, Mass., contacted the company for which she and her wife both work after the Supreme Court issued its DOMA decision to see whether they and their daughter are now eligible for a family health insurance plan.
The company issued a memo that said “guidance is anticipated” from the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor on “how the ruling affects the laws they enforce.”
Novak said the company told her on Tuesday that it is still waiting to hear from the two agencies.
“We’re kind of eager to hear back from our employer on when are you guys going to be changing this,” she told the Blade.
OPM has said in a series of memos it released after the DOMA ruling that federal gay employees who have entered into civil unions will remain ineligible for most of the benefits that legally married same-sex couples are now able to receive.
GLIFAA President Ken Kero-Mentz said retirement plans are among the issues that still need to be sorted out.
He described the impact of the DOMA decision — specifically the impact it has had on immigration and insurance benefits for gays and lesbians who were unable to obtain federal health insurance benefits while living overseas with their same-sex spouses — as “enormous.”
“DOMA had a particularly hateful effect, especially for us in the foreign service community,” Kero-Mentz said. “We’re able to celebrate that much more within our smaller community because these two massive barriers have now been lifted.”
Melissa Hale and Missy Novak of South Deerfield, Mass., and their daughter, Ayden Novak (Photo courtesy of Missy Novak)
U.S. Federal Courts
Federal judge blocks Trump passport executive order
State Department can no longer issue travel documents with ‘X’ gender markers
A federal judge on Friday ruled in favor of a group of transgender and nonbinary people who have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans the State Department from issuing passports with “X” gender markers.
The Associated Press notes U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick in Boston issued a preliminary injunction against the directive. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the plaintiffs, in a press release notes Kobick concluded Trump’s executive order “is likely unconstitutional and in violation of the law.”
“The preliminary injunction requires the State Department to allow six transgender and nonbinary people to obtain passports with sex designations consistent with their gender identity while the lawsuit proceeds,” notes the ACLU. “Though today’s court order applies only to six of the plaintiffs in the case, the plaintiffs plan to quickly file a motion asking the court to certify a class of people affected by the State Department policy and to extend the preliminary injunction to that entire class.”
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June 2021 announced the State Department would begin to issue gender-neutral passports and documents for American citizens who were born overseas.
Dana Zzyym, an intersex U.S. Navy veteran who identifies as nonbinary, in 2015 filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department after it denied their application for a passport with an “X” gender marker. Zzyym in October 2021 received the first gender-neutral American passport.
The State Department policy took effect on April 11, 2022. Trump signed his executive order shortly after he took office in January.
Germany, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands are among the countries that have issued travel advisories for trans and nonbinary people who plan to visit the U.S.
“This ruling affirms the inherent dignity of our clients, acknowledging the immediate and profound negative impact that the Trump administration’s passport policy would have on their ability to travel for work, school, and family,” said ACLU of Massachusetts Legal Director Jessie Rossman after Kobick issued her ruling.
“By forcing people to carry documents that directly contradict their identities, the Trump administration is attacking the very foundations of our right to privacy and the freedom to be ourselves,” added Rossman. “We will continue to fight to rescind this unlawful policy for everyone so that no one is placed in this untenable and unsafe position.”
State Department
HIV/AIDS activists protest at State Department, demand full PEPFAR funding restoration
Black coffins placed in front of Harry S. Truman Building
Dozens of HIV/AIDS activists on Thursday gathered in front of the State Department and demanded the Trump-Vance administration fully restore President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funding.
Housing Works CEO Charles King, Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell, Human Rights Campaign Senior Public Policy Advocate Matthew Rose, and others placed 206 black Styrofoam coffins in front of the State Department before the protest began.
King said more than an estimated 100,000 people with HIV/AIDS will die this year if PEPFAR funding is not fully restored.
“If we continue to not provide the PEPFAR funding to people living in low-income countries who are living with HIV or at risk, we are going to see millions and millions of deaths as well as millions of new infections,” added King.
Then-President George W. Bush in 2003 signed legislation that created PEPFAR.
The Trump-Vance administration in January froze nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending for at least 90 days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later issued a waiver that allows the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze.
The Washington Blade has previously reported PEPFAR-funded programs in Kenya and other African countries have been forced to suspend services and even shut down because of a lack of U.S. funding. Two South African organizations — OUT LGBT Well-being and Access Chapter 2 — that received PEPFAR funding through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in recent weeks closed down HIV-prevention programs and other services to men who have sex with men.
Rubio last month said 83 percent of USAID contracts have been cancelled. He noted the State Department will administer those that remain in place “more effectively.”
“PEPFAR represents the best of us, the dignity of our country, of our people, of our shared humanity,” said Rose.
Russell described Rubio as “ignorant and incompetent” and said “he should be fired.”
“What secretary of state in 90 days could dismantle what the brilliance of AIDS activism created side-by-side with George W. Bush? What kind of fool could do that? I’ll tell you who, the boss who sits in the Harry S. Truman Building, Marco Rubio,” said Russell.
U.S. Military/Pentagon
Pentagon urged to reverse Naval Academy book ban
Hundreds of titles discussing race, gender, and sexuality pulled from library shelves
Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund issued a letter on Tuesday urging U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reverse course on a policy that led to the removal of 381 books from the Nimitz Library of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
Pursuant to President Donald Trump’s executive order 14190, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” the institution screened 900 titles to identify works promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” removing those that concerned or touched upon “topics pertaining to the experiences of people of color, especially Black people, and/or LGBTQ people,” according to a press release from the civil rights organizations.
These included “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “Stone Fruit” by Lee Lai, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” by James W. Loewen, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, and “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul” by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
The groups further noted that “the collection retained other books with messages and themes that privilege certain races and religions over others, including ‘The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan’ by Thomas Dixon, Jr., ‘Mein Kampf’ by Adolf Hitler, and ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad.
In their letter, Lambda Legal and LDF argued the books must be returned to circulation to preserve the “constitutional rights” of cadets at the institution, warning of the “danger” that comes with “censoring materials based on viewpoints disfavored by the current administration.”
“Such censorship is especially dangerous in an educational setting, where critical inquiry, intellectual diversity, and exposure to a wide array of perspectives are necessary to educate future citizen-leaders,” Lambda Legal Chief Legal Officer Jennifer C. Pizer and LDF Director of Strategic Initiatives Jin Hee Lee said in the press release.
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