Obama Administration - A Busman's Holiday for ELCA

Beyond the Briefs--Obama’s cabinet another step out of the closet Gay and Lesbian Times ^ 12-11-08 Robert DeKoven

Posted on Thursday, December 11, 2008 7:38:05 PM by SJackson

President-elect Barack Obama’s choices for his cabinet are crucial to our community, because the executive branch of government has far more to do with our everyday rights than do the judicial and legislative branches.

Hillary Clinton as secretary of state is a welcome friend for gays and lesbians worldwide. Given Clinton’s support of GLBT rights in the U.S. Senate, she can be expected to condemn practices in other countries that deny us basic human rights. International human rights deeply concern us all, and Clinton will bring practices in countries such as Iran, where people are hanged for being gay, to the forefront of the world’s attention. Similarly, she will point to progressive countries, such as Canada, where we have full equality, as persuasive models for what the U.S. must do. This will further influence the U.S. Supreme Court, which already increasingly looks to world consensus in deciding upon legislation that affects us, such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as well as hate crimes and marriage equality legislation.

Eric Holder, Obama’s pick for attorney general, is also likely to be an ally on our issues. He is literally the “holder” of gay civil rights for the next four years, and it’s highly probable that his first act will be to champion a federal law giving the U.S. attorney general the power to prosecute federal hate crimes in instances where the perpetrator has either crossed state lines or has used a tool of interstate commerce (the Internet, a car) to commit one.

Holder will also be influential in helping to select federal judges. (During the last eight years, the right wing used the attorney general’s office to screen out pro-gay judges.) He’ll also be responsible for hiring 94 local U.S. attorneys, attorneys who can shape policy in amazing ways. For example, a local U.S. attorney could decide to prosecute groups that work to deny rights to gays and lesbians.

Further, he is likely to opine that states must issue federal benefits to children of same-sex couples, at least to the extent that state laws recognize domestic partnerships and civil unions. (Ideally, he would go even further and hold that the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states and the federal government to refuse recognition of same-sex marriage, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.)

Obama’s choices for his cabinet are crucial to our community.Obama’s choice of Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security is significant for us too. Napolitano, the current governor of Arizona, is supportive of gay rights and, as secretary of homeland security, can instruct her immigration staff to grant asylum to gay and lesbian refugees who flee persecution in their native countries. Former Attorney General Janet Reno initiated this concept, but right-wing immigration attorneys in the Bush administration argued to send GLBT people seeking asylum back to their countries of origin, as long as there were remote places where they could hide. (Imagine sending Jews back to Nazi Germany to live in the hills!) Napolitano will also have the power to remove the homophobic immigration judges DHS hired under Bush, and this will affect other areas of immigration law too. For instance, it will affect whether we can bring our spouses to the U.S., as straights can, without fear they will be sent back.

Other of Obama’s picks for cabinet may also have a significant affect on the GLBT community, especially in terms of the visibility they bring to it. If Mary Beth Maxwell, for instance, becomes labor secretary, she will be the first openly lesbian cabinet member in history. Robert DeKoven is a professor at California Western School of Law.