In today’s White House briefing both Metro Weekly and Kerry Eleveld with Equality Matters got in questions about LGBT issues, with Eleveld following up on her column regarding Brian Bond’s departure from the White House and Metro Weekly asking about this past week‘s developments regarding DOJ’s new policy not to oppose joint bankruptcy filings by same-sex married couples. Neither question elicited much of a response from White House press secretary Jay Carney.
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From the transcript:
Q And on just a completely unrelated subject, it’s been reported that Brian Bond, who was in charge of constituency relations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, is leaving the White House for the DNC. Currently, there’s no senior LGBT advisor to the President on this issue, arguably one of the biggest civil rights questions of his presidency. Does he — does the President plan to appoint someone to advise him on these issues going forward?
MR. CARNEY: I don’t have any personnel announcements for you. I think that his record on these issues is something he is proud of and he gets advice from a lot of quarters. I don’t have an announcement for you on that.
Chris.
Q On July 7th, DOJ announced it would no longer oppose married, same-sex couples who are seeking to file joint bankruptcy petitions. And that was a move that DOJ had opposed in the past, basing it on DOMA. You in the briefing room, however, in the past have said that the President doesn’t have the ability to waive [sic] a magic wand and change policy.
MR. CARNEY: I wish he did.
Q And that was with regards to immigration situation and same-sex couples seeking equal treatment. Can you explain what the difference between those situations is, and also, whether or not the President supports DOJ’s decision to allow same-sex couples to file join bankruptcy petitions?
MR. CARNEY: Chris, I honestly haven’t talked about this with him in terms of that specific decision by DOJ, so I’d have to refer you to that. I think the overall principle that he doesn’t have a magic wand — although some of us wish he did sometimes, maybe this week in particular — to make things happen is just a statement of fact. And there are processes that involve legal analysis and decisions that obviously are handled over at the Department of Justice. So I just don’t have any more information for you on that.
Q But the President has said that until there are final court rulings that he expects DOMA to be enforced. Is this situation — does the President feel that this is enforcing DOMA by allowing same-sex couples to file joint bankruptcy petitions?
MR. CARNEY: I haven’t had that conversation with him. I mean, I can take that question for you.
[Image: Carney at White House press briefing on June 27, 2011.]
Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has pledged to make New York City a sanctuary city for transgender people.
In a new campaign ad honoring Latina trans activist Sylvia Rivera -- a pioneering figure in the early LGBTQ rights movement -- Mamdani sits at a desk near the Christopher Street Pier in Greenwich Village, recounting Rivera’s life and the pier’s significance as a haven for LGBTQ people in the city.
As photos and video clips of Rivera and other activists flash across the screen, Mamdani recounts her legacy of activism -- from her role in early gay and trans rights demonstrations to founding Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, which provided food and shelter for homeless trans people, and her push for LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws.
Thanks to my dad's career, the Army was a huge part of my upbringing. When I was little, vaccinations, swimming lessons, and commissary shopping meant a trip to Fort Belvoir, Virginia. My elder brother followed in our father's Army footsteps, becoming an Army helicopter pilot. My stepfather was in the Navy during World War II, serving on a submarine in the Pacific.
When I hit 18, when I was most likely to consider joining the military myself, even "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a few years away. If you were found to be gay, out you went. Poring over reams of court documents, during a college internship, regarding the murder of Naval officer Allen R. Schindler Jr., assured me that I was better off as a civilian. Schindler, who was gay and born the same year as me, was beaten to death by two shipmates during shore leave in Japan.
Three Florida jurisdictions have rejected proposals to rename streets after conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, whom Republicans have lionized as a martyr since his fatal shooting at Utah Valley University on September 10.
Since Kirk's death, conservatives have blamed left-wing rhetoric for fueling the kind of political violence that claimed his life, and his funeral became a galvanizing moment for conservatives, many of whom vowed to rededicate themselves to right-wing causes.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have cited Kirk's death as justification for targeting those they claim oppose free speech -- a move critics call a pretext for cracking down on left-wing groups and their allies.
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