Obama to act on anti-trans civil service discrimination, has no timeline on DOMA
Filed by: Alex Blaze
June 17, 2009 7:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/06/obama_moves_on_transgender_civil_service.phpI moved this update up to its own post to make discussion clearer. Video of the ceremony and a transcript after the jump.
Earlier today I was on a conference call with the director of the Office of Personnel Management John Berry, who's also openly gay. There was plenty of mainstream media on the line (ABC, USA Today, LA Times), so expect some print and TV coverage of this issue and this memo.
He discussed the memo at some length and stressed that this is part of an "internal review" that was conducted at the OPM and at the Department of the State that started at the beginning of the Obama Administration to search for benefits that could be extended to same-sex partners that wouldn't violate DOMA. Lots of benefits will be extended, but not health care and retirement benefits. He said those would require legislative action.
