Obama’s Smallest Possible Action

Obama signed a memorandum yesterday granting limited benefits to federal employees in same-sex partnerships.  This is great for federal employees as well as the simple fact that any small step towards equality is good thing.  But I think this memorandum shows a little bit of a darker truth.

First, this is a memorandum and not a executive order which only makes this temporary.  As soon as Obama exits office, this could no longer apply.  It also doesn’t grant same-sex partners health benefits.  His administration claims that because of DOMA, they can’t give out the really good benefits.  I’m not a lawyer, so I’m a little confused why sick days aren’t covered by DOMA but health insurance is covered.

The memo also serves to remind us that DOMA is still the law of the land and that it discriminates.  Of course, the DOJ claims it does not.  Obama doesn’t say anything concrete about action that would actually change the laws that prevent granting full equality.  He alludes to it taking “years.”

All of these things add up to this being the smallest action he could have possibly taken. Obviously, he just wanted to try and make up for the horrible brief his DOJ filed last week.  But this simply doesn’t accomplish that.

But that’s not really the thing that bothers me about this action.  As the least possible thing he could have taken to grant even a tiny sliver of equality to LGBT people, he waited nearly five months to do so.  In the first line of his remarks he says:

Today I’m proud to issue a presidential memorandum that paves the way for long-overdue progress in our nation’s pursuit of equality.

How long-overdue was it?  If it was years overdue, maybe you should have tackled this in February.  Or was it only long-overdue last week, right around the time LGBT people started pulling out of your fundraiser?  Is that when it was long-overdue?

I don’t like that Obama wants to have this both ways (like the B’s in the LGBT).  You can’t claim that gay equality is important if you aren’t actually going to make substantial moves for our equality.  I know some people aren’t comfortable comparing miscegenation and same-sex marriage… but does Obama think if Loving v. Virginia had not happened, his parents would be thrilled to know that—even though they could not get married—if one of them happened to be hired by the federal government, they would be able to take time off to care for their loved one who does not have health insurance?

Probably not.