Category Archives: Nancy Pelosi

In first, Pocan obtains congressional spousal ID for same-sex partner

Mark Pocan, United States House of Representatives, Wisconsin, Democratic Party, gay news, Washington Blade

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) has secured a spousal ID for Philip Frank, whom he legally married in 2006 (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

For apparently the first time ever in the history of the U.S. House, a gay member of Congress has obtained a congressional ID card identifying his same-sex partner as a spouse.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) told the Washington Blade on Thursday the House Sergeant at Arms informed him late last month that Philip Frank, whom Pocan legally married in Canada in 2006, would be able to obtain an ID labeling him as congressional spouse. Previously, Frank was given an ID identifying him as a “designee,” but picked up his new ID on April 26.

Pocan said he’s happy Frank has received the ID designating him as spouse, but noted that federal employees with same-sex partners are still denied an array of benefits — including health and pension benefits — because of the Defense of Marriage Act.

“I think it’s an important step toward recognizing equality and we’re very proud of receiving it,” Pocan said. “We also realize there’s still a lot more work to do for same-sex couples that work for the federal government.”

The change of the new congressional ID is symbolic. Frank isn’t able to receive any more benefits as a result. Still, the change for the first time makes same-sex spouses equal to opposite-sex spouses in terms of identification.

At this time, Pocan is the only legally married member of Congress. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) are in same-sex relationships, but aren’t legally married, even though Polis in 2011 became the first openly gay father in Congress. Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) last year became the first member of Congress in a same-sex marriage late last year, but Pocan said Frank’s spouse, Jim Ready, never received a spousal ID.

Pocan said he had been asking the House Sergeant at Arms to make the change since he became a U.S. House in January, or at least explain the reasoning for withholding a spousal ID from a legally married couple. The House Sergeant at Arms’ office on Thursday didn’t immediately respond to the Washington Blade’s request to comment on the situation.

In a previously published profile piece on Pocan, the Washington Blade reported Pocan was asking the House Sergeant at Arms to make the change in partnership with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesperson, said upon learning the situation was resolved that the Democratic leader was happy to help Pocan secure an appropriate ID card for his spouse.

“Leader Pelosi was very pleased to assist Congressman Pocan in securing an appropriate ID for his husband, Philip,” Hammill said. “Congressman Pocan is to be commended for using this personal example to highlight the plight that LGBT federal employees face with respect to equal benefits.”

Even though he received the spousal ID, Pocan said the lack of major partner benefits for federal employees continues is a persistent problem. A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court against DOMA — which may happen in June as the result of pending litigation — would likely take care of it, but Pocan plans in the coming weeks to introduce legislation to address the issue known as the Domestic Partnership Benefits & Obligations Act.

“We realize that symbolism is great and important, especially when it’s recognized by the House, but even more important is making sure that we get those full benefits for the thousands and thousands of folks who work for the federal government who aren’t recognized in the same way,” Pocan said.

In first, Pocan obtains congressional spousal ID for same-sex partner

Mark Pocan, United States House of Representatives, Wisconsin, Democratic Party, gay news, Washington Blade

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) has secured a spousal ID for Philip Frank, whom he legally married in 2006 (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

For apparently the first time ever in the history of the U.S. House, a gay member of Congress has obtained a congressional ID card identifying his same-sex partner as a spouse.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) told the Washington Blade on Thursday the House Sergeant at Arms informed him late last month that Philip Frank, whom Pocan legally married in Canada in 2006, would be able to obtain an ID labeling him as congressional spouse. Previously, Frank was given an ID identifying him as a “designee,” but picked up his new ID on April 26.

Pocan said he’s happy Frank has received the ID designating him as spouse, but noted that federal employees with same-sex partners are still denied an array of benefits — including health and pension benefits — because of the Defense of Marriage Act.

“I think it’s an important step toward recognizing equality and we’re very proud of receiving it,” Pocan said. “We also realize there’s still a lot more work to do for same-sex couples that work for the federal government.”

The change of the new congressional ID is symbolic. Frank isn’t able to receive any more benefits as a result. Still, the change for the first time makes same-sex spouses equal to opposite-sex spouses in terms of identification.

At this time, Pocan is the only legally married openly gay member of Congress. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) are in same-sex relationships, but aren’t legally married, even though Polis in 2011 became the first openly gay father in Congress. Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) last year became the first member of Congress in a same-sex marriage late last year, but Pocan said Frank’s spouse, Jim Ready, never received a spousal ID.

Pocan said he had been asking the House Sergeant at Arms to make the change since he became a U.S. House in January, or at least explain the reasoning for withholding a spousal ID from a legally married couple. The House Sergeant at Arms’ office on Thursday didn’t immediately respond to the Washington Blade’s request to comment on the situation.

In a previously published profile piece on Pocan, the Washington Blade reported Pocan was asking the House Sergeant at Arms to make the change in partnership with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesperson, said the Democratic leader was happy to help Pocan obtain an ID card for his spouse.

“Leader Pelosi was very pleased to assist Congressman Pocan in securing an appropriate ID for his husband, Philip,” Hammill said. “Congressman Pocan is to be commended for using this personal example to highlight the plight that LGBT federal employees face with respect to equal benefits.”

Even though he received the spousal ID, Pocan said the lack of major partner benefits for federal employees continues is a persistent problem. A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court against DOMA — which may happen in June as the result of pending litigation — would likely take care of it, but Pocan plans in the coming weeks to introduce legislation to address the issue known as the Domestic Partnership Benefits & Obligations Act.

“We realize that symbolism is great and important, especially when it’s recognized by the House, but even more important is making sure that we get those full benefits for the thousands and thousands of folks who work for the federal government who aren’t recognized in the same way,” Pocan said.

House Dems to urge Supreme Court to strike down DOMA

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will lead Democrats in a brief against DOMA before the Supreme Court (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will lead Democrats in a brief against DOMA before the Supreme Court. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

House Democrats are circulating a legal brief that will argue against the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act before the Supreme Court, the Washington Blade has learned.

Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said his boss will lead other Democrats in the friend-of-the-court brief before the Supreme Court, which is due on Friday. The case pending before the court is known as Windsor v. United States.

“There will be a strong expression of support from the House Democratic Caucus in support of overturning DOMA and casting DOMA into the dustbin of history,” Hammill said.

Hammill declined to provide additional details about the filing, so it’s unknown what the argument of the brief will be. It will likely counter the arguments presented by the House Republican-led Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group that the committee speaks for the House as a whole.

The individual House members who signed the brief and the total number of signatures wasn’t immediately known. But Ilan Kayatsky, a spokesperson for Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), said his boss is the principal signer of the brief. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif), the only openly gay Asian-American in Congress, and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the only bisexual member, independently told the Washington Blade they would sign the brief.

It’s not surprising House Democrats are preparing a brief because they’ve participated in each of the DOMA challenges pending before appellate courts.

They filed a brief before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals when the Windsor case was before that court. House Democrats also filed a brief before the First Circuit in the combined case of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. Department of Health & Human Services, and another before the Ninth Circuit in the case of Golinski v. United States.

House Democrats are preparing their brief amid a flurry of news regarding other briefs that have been submitted in the case against DOMA before the Supreme Court as well as Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case challenging California’s Proposition 8.

LGBT advocates are also eagerly waiting to see whether the Obama administration will take part in the lawsuit against Prop 8 before the Supreme Court. The deadline for the Justice Department to do so is Thursday.

Following the White House news briefing on Wednesday, the Blade shouted out to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney an inquiry on whether the Justice Department would file a brief. Without turning around to answer as he left the room, Carney replied, “I don’t have anything for you on that.”

A group of 278 businesses and organizations — including tech companies like Xerox and Microsoft as well as web companies like Google, Twitter and eBay — filed a friend-of-the-court brief before the Supreme Court on Wednesday arguing that DOMA is bad for business.

In the 36-page brief, the companies argue that DOMA imposes compliance burdens upon employers because they treat benefits — such as health care benefits and family leave — differently for straight married employees and gay married employees.

“Although marriages are celebrated and recognized under state law, DOMA, a federal law withholding marital benefits from some lawful marriages but not others, requires that employers treat one employee differently from another, when each is married, and each marriage is equally lawful,” the brief states. “DOMA thus impairs employer/employee relations and other business interests.”

The brief also argues that DOMA requires companies to affirm discrimination they believe is injurious to their corporate missions and is contrary to non-discrimination laws and policies.

“DOMA imposes on amici not simply the considerable burden of compliance and cost,” the brief states. “DOMA conscripts amici to become the face of its mandate that two separate castes of married persons be identified and separately treated.”

Also among the signatories is the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the official non-partisan organization of all United States cities with populations of 30,000 or more.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and a member of the group Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, said the conference is proud to take part in the brief.

“Mayors want their citizens and businesses to prosper, and that means supporting them against discrimination – from any level of government,” Nutter said. “Married means married, and mayors and businesses agree that DOMA can’t stand.”

Another brief was filed on Wednesday by a coalition of groups representing Red States where same-sex marriage isn’t legal. The “Red State” brief, which responds to both the Prop 8 and DOMA cases, was signed by groups like Kentucky Equality Federation, Equality Virginia, the Utah Pride Center and the the Utah Pride Center and the Campaign for Southern Equality.

The 34-page brief argues that the Supreme Court should find laws related to sexual orientation should be subject to heightened scrutiny, citing laws that demean gay students in the education system as well as bans on adoption and same-sex marriage.

“The keystone of existing systems of de jure denigration of gay Americans is the denial of their right to marry,” the brief states. “It is both the crux of the matter and the root of other forms of discrimination against gay citizens. The heartbreaking message to committed, gay couples: Your love is unworthy of marriage.”

And The New York Times reported that more than two-dozen Republicans have signed onto the brief against Prop 8 being circulated by gay former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, which received significant media attention this week. The additional reported signers are former Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire, who signed on as co-sponsor of DOMA repeal late last year, and Beth Myers, who was an adviser to former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The Times initially reported that former congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, who authored the Federal Marriage Amendment while in Congress, was another signer. But Musgrave denied to local Denver media that she signed the brief and the Times later ran a correction saying the signer was in fact B. J. Nikkel, who last year was the only Republican on the Colorado House Judiciary Committee to vote in support of civil unions and worked as district director for Musgrave.

The cure for HIV rides a bike

As I watched Timothy Ray Brown mount his new red mountain bike, my parental instincts kicked in. What if he fell or couldn’t stop or hurts himself in some other way? Frightened, I kept visualizing how the media would handle the story: “Timothy Ray Brown, the first person cured of HIV, dies,” they’d say, “but not from HIV or cancer or his chemotherapy, stem cell transplant or other invasive treatments. Rather, he fell off his bicycle and succumbed to a severe head injury.”

The answer for an HIV cure for the world lies within Timothy, somewhere. I’m aware some may criticize Timothy’s riding a bike or going skydiving, bungee jumping, even driving a car.  Yes, he’s the first person to be cured of the world’s most unrelenting disease, but what’s even more important is he’s a human being who wants to live life to its fullest.

“The Berlin Patient” is the name the media gave Brown. At the time, he was living in Berlin and wished to remain anonymous. Why the anonymity? Because Timothy couldn’t believe it was true, he told us. He feared his cure was temporary and the HIV would return. After all, he said, it was only a year or so earlier that his leukemia had resurfaced. Of course, eventually the media learned his name.

On Feb. 20, Timothy celebrates the sixth anniversary of the procedure that led to his cure.

As many of you know, I’m the founder and Chad Johnson is the co-founder of the World AIDS Institute (WAI), established to document and preserve the global history of AIDS, inspire action today to improve the lives of people living with HIV and AIDS (and their family, friends, and communities) and strengthen the spectrum of innovative initiatives to find a cure.

Timothy is co-founder of WAI and founder of the Timothy Ray Brown Foundation of WAI that Chad and I helped launch eight months ago. The Timothy Ray Brown Foundation is the world’s first organization in the 31-year history of the AIDS epidemic whose sole mission is to find a cure for HIV.

Let me tell you a story. A few months ago, I was having lunch with Timothy when he said — in a burst of outrage — he wanted to go to the top of the Empire State Building and tell the world about the injustices people living with HIV face on a daily basis. Timothy vowed he would use his energy to make this right.

I told Timothy that I understood his anger and frustration, but felt diluting our message – finding a cure – might be counterproductive. “I think not,” he said, pointing out he had been HIV positive twice as long as he has been cured. Then he looked at me the same way he did months ago when he told me he was launching an organization to find a cure. His plan was to announce it during the 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. He asked us to help him.

The day before we were to launch the Timothy Ray Brown Foundation, we hosted a reception with Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Library of Congress. I remember seeing her aide whisper to her that Timothy was at the other end of the room. It would be the first time they would meet. Immediately, she started toward Timothy. As they met in the middle of the room, she looked him in the eyes and said, “You are miracle. You are a miracle.” Then they embraced.  She held onto him for a long time as if his energy would help heal the wounds of the hundreds of people in her California district who had died from AIDS, many of them her friends.

It is true: Timothy Ray Brown may be a miracle. But he also is a human being. And if he wants to ride his new red mountain bike, he should do it as fast and as far as he wants. Timothy Ray Brown, the first person in the world cured of HIV, wants to live life to the fullest.

Dave Purdy is Founder and CEO of the World AIDS Institute. Reach him at dpurdy@worldaidsinstitute.org.

House GOP cost cap for DOMA defense reaches $3 million

John Boehner, Speaker of the House, GOP, Republican, gay news, Washington Blade

U.S. House Speaker, John Boehner has directed the House to defend DOMA in court (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

House Republicans secretly agreed to raise the cost for defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court to $3 million in the first week that the 113th Congress was sworn into office, according to a copy of the contract obtained by the Washington Blade on Tuesday.

The contract, signed by new House Committee on Administration Chair Candace Miller (R-Mich.), allows for expenses to pay for outside counsel to defend DOMA in court to reach $3 million — a full $1 million more than the previous cost cap agreed to in September. In a statement this week, House Democrats said the agreement was reached in secret and they weren’t aware of it until late Monday.

“The General Counsel agrees to pay the Contractor for all services to be rendered pursuant to this Agreement a sum not to exceed $2,750,000.00,” the contract states. “It is further understood and agreed that, effective January 4, 2013, the aforementioned $2,750,000.00 cap may be raised from time to time up to, but not exceeding, $3,000,000, upon written notice of the General Counsel to the Contractor specifying that the General Counsel is legally liable under this Agreement for a specific amount.”

The contact was signed by House General Counsel Kerry Kircher and private attorney Paul Clement, the former Bush administration U.S. solicitor general hired to defend DOMA in court, on Jan. 3, or the first day of the 113th Congress. Miller signed the contract on Jan. 4.

On the same day the attorneys signed the contract, the House approved as part of its rules for the 113th Congress language giving authority for the House Republican-led Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to defend DOMA in court. The cost cap was raised almost one month after the Supreme Court agreed to take up litigation challenging DOMA, known as Windsor v. United States.

The new agreement means that a cost cap initially set at $500,000 has been raised to $1.5 million, again to $2 million and now most recently to $3 million. Like the previous agreements, the contract states the cost cap may yet again be raised if the parties involved agree to a higher amount in another written contract.

But there’s new language in the contract putting a time limit on the services rendered by Clement; it’ll terminate when litigation is complete or at noon on Jan. 3, 2015 — whichever comes first. The contract also allows for an extension of time limit for parties involved. However, this time limit is almost certainly beyond the time the Supreme Court would reach a decision on DOMA before the end of its term in June.

House Republicans elected to take up defense of DOMA in court in March 2011 after the Obama administration announced it would no longer defend the statute. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) directed House general counsel to defend the anti-gay law after a party-line vote approving the decision to do so on the five-member House Republican-led Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group.

It’s not the first time that Democrats have accused Republicans of agreeing to raise the cost cap of DOMA in secret. The previous contract that raised the cost cap to $2 million was signed in September, but House Democrats said they didn’t obtain a copy until last month.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the two “no” votes on BLAG, responded to news that the cost cap to defend DOMA was yet again raised and raised in secret with consternation.

In a letter to Boehner dated Jan. 15, they jointly renew their call on House Republicans to discontinue defense of DOMA — but also made a new call for Republicans to demonstrate their defense of DOMA more transparently — calling the actions a “clandestine commitment of taxpayer funds” as well as “highly irregular and objectionable.”

“Until Republicans decide to abandon this effort once and for all, we ask you to make your legal plans clear; to make public every contract signed with outside counsel in this case in a timely manner; to declare the total cost of this case to the taxpayers; and to abide by the highest standards of transparency and accountability,” Pelosi and Hoyer wrote.

Pelosi and Hoyer emphasize the House defense of DOMA doesn’t “reflect the will of the House or the consensus of the BLAG.” House Democrats have been filing friend-of-the-court briefs against DOMA before the appellate courts considering the constitutionality of the anti-gay law.

A spokesperson for Boehner deferred questions to the House Committee on Administration, which didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment. It’s the first time over the course House Republican defense of DOMA that Boehner’s has deferred comment and provided a response or simply decline to answer.

Last month, Boehner told the Washington Blade during a news conference when asked he whether supports raising the cost cap to defend DOMA, “If the Justice Department is not going to enforce the law of the land, the Congress will.”

———————–

Below is the full text of the letter from Pelosi and Hoyer:

January 15, 2013
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.  20515

Dear Speaker Boehner:

As the two Democratic Members of the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), we wish to strongly reaffirm our objections to the repeated actions by the Republican leadership to secretly and dramatically increase the contract between the House and outside counsel in arguing to uphold the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in more than a dozen cases. This is not the first time that House Republicans have made a unilateral decision to raise the ceiling on expenditures for this wasteful litigation that supports a discriminatory statute, without any public discussion or advance notice to Democratic members of the BLAG, Members of the House, or the public. This clandestine commitment of taxpayer funds is highly irregular and objectionable, and it must end now.

Let us be clear: these steps do not reflect the will of the House or the consensus of the BLAG. Democrats do not support any decisions to invest taxpayer funds in defense of an indefensible law. We remain united in our opposition to any effort to preserve, protect, and defend discrimination in our country.

From the start, the Republican-led campaign to defend DOMA has been a practice in futility and a waste of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars. The Republican-appointed, taxpayer-funded legal team has lost in every case. Courts across the nation have stood on the side of justice and equality for all Americans. DOMA is on its way into the dustbin of history.

It would be bad enough if Republicans were losing in court and accepting the result. Yet it is the height of hypocrisy for House Republicans to waste public funds in one breath then claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility in the next. With Republicans willing to take our economy and our country to the brink of default in the name of deficit reduction, there is simply no excuse for any Member of Congress to commit taxpayer dollars to an unnecessary – and futile – legal battle.

Until Republicans decide to abandon this effort once and for all, we ask you to make your legal plans clear; to make public every contract signed with outside counsel in this case in a timely manner; to declare the total cost of this case to the taxpayers; and to abide by the highest standards of transparency and accountability.

The Defense of Marriage Act now sits before the Supreme Court. We believe it is only a matter of time before this offensive law is a discarded relic of a bygone era. We look forward to the day when this measure is declared unconstitutional by the highest court in the land and when all of America’s families can know the blessings of equal protection under the law.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

best regards,

NANCY PELOSI
Democratic Leader

STENY H. HOYER
Democratic Whip

Year in review: D.C. hosts International AIDS Conference

Gay News, Washington Blade, Gay Uganda

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honored Ugandan human rights advocates at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

More than 30,000 people from around the world gathered at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in D.C. in July for the International AIDS Conference.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, former First Lady Laura Bush, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.,) Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg and gay singer Elton John were among the politicians, public health officials and others who spoke during the gathering that took place in the United States for the first time since San Francisco hosted it in 1990. (President Obama in 2009 completed the process that lifted the ban on people with HIV/AIDS from entering the country.)

Mayor Vincent Gray and other D.C. officials used the conference to highlight the city’s ongoing efforts to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the nation’s capital. The NAMES Project showcased tens of thousands of panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt throughout the metropolitan area in July, while the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and other HIV/AIDS service providers protested what they contend is a lack of commitment from the White House and other American politicians to combat the epidemic. U.S. Park Service police arrested Housing Works President Charles King and 12 others who tried to tie red ribbons, condoms and other items to the White House fence following a protest in Lafayette Park.

The 20th International AIDS Conference is scheduled to take place in Melbourne, Australia, in July 2014.