Report from Creating Change Conference in Denver: Domestic Partners Need COBRA Too

Greetings from Denver! We’re here at the Creating Change Conference, hosted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. There’s a lot of excitement among the attendees as to what we can do in this new climate of change, but there are also some very real challenges for LGBT couples in this economic climate. One of these, brought to our attention by Nicky Grist of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, is the need for COBRA benefits for domestic partners. This online letter-writing campaign details what’s at stake. Basically, even if an employer offers domestic partner benefits to an employee, the employer doesn’t legally have to extend continuation coverage to the domestic partner if the employee is laid off. That obviously has dire implications for couples and their families dealing with medical issues and financial hardship. If you have time this week, please write a letter addressing this important issue … and stay tuned to this blog next week for a report from the conference.

It’s Awards Season!

You’ve likely noticed that the Oscar nominations came out this past week, but there’s another set of awards that we watch for at Atticus Circle — the GLAAD Media Awards, honoring those movies and TV shows that portray LGBT individuals in a positive light. As you might expect, the Oscar-nominated Milk is among the list of movies honored, and a number of shows on ABC — including Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters — are among the notable television programs nominated for awards.

One of the most important criteria for us in looking at LGBT portrayals in the media is to look at the relationships between LGBT people and their straight friends. On shows like Ugly Betty, being gay or transgender is part of the essence of what makes those particular characters memorable and intriguing, and their straight friends on the show know this. As funny and as over-the-top as a show like Ugly Betty can be, the way that LGBT and straight characters interact on that show is especially heartening to those of us who have similar relationships.

GLAAD has been giving these awards out for 20 years now, and looking at the list of shows and movies demonstrates how far we’ve come in our understanding of what it is to be LBGT, and how much less judgmental we’ve become as a society over time. Certainly, we’re not where we need to be yet. But the very existence of a list of 185 nominees — in English and Spanish-language categories, no less — is a step in the right direction.

A Promising Week for Advancing LGBT Rights

All in all, it’s been a good week for us.

With President Obama in the White House (and finally President rather than President-Elect Obama), I finally feel like there’s an ally for LGBT rights in the White House. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the new White House website yet, visit this page and scroll down to the section on LGBT rights. President Obama is calling for a repeal of DOMA and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, civil unions affording LGBT partners the same legal rights and privileges that married couples enjoy, and a pledge to fight hate crimes and workplace discrimination. I know that what lies ahead won’t be easy, but I feel that our voices will be heard in this new era that was so dramatically ushered in on Tuesday.

If you missed the inspirational words of Bishop Gene Robinson, who kicked off Sunday’s We Are One concert with an invocation, you can read it here or view it here. Unfortunately, many people missed it, as HBO’s coverage of the concert, though available to all cable TV subscribers, didn’t include the invocation. You can view reactions to that here or even add your own.

In the meantime, consider what you can do in the weeks and months ahead to help advance LGBT rights. Encourage your family and friends to join Atticus Circle to keep up-to-date on our calls to action. Wear a T-shirt that encourages discussion of these vitally important issues. We are in what could be a pivotal era for the advancement of LGBT rights — but it won’t happen if we sit idly by and wait for change. This week’s inauguration is the end result of a campaign that involved millions giving time, energy, and money to turn “Yes We Can” into “Yes We Will.”

Inauguration Ceremonies

Though the Obama inauguration is officially on Tuesday, the festivities start on Sunday with We Are One, a celebration of the inauguration from the Lincoln Memorial. HBO is televising it, and inviting its cable carriers to make the broadcast available to all its carriers — meaning that you’ll be able to see it on HBO even if you don’t subscribe to it.

As you might expect, there are a number of great performers and entertainers coming together to celebrate this historic and wonderful moment. But I’ll be watching for one “star” in particular — Gene Robinson, the nation’s first openly gay Episcopal bishop, who will be delivering an invocation to help usher in the inauguration.

This excellent NPR segment from a few days ago will give you a sense of his eloquence and his compassion. His participation in the inauguration is certainly welcome for those of us who support gay rights, and I encourage you to make your family and friends aware of Robinson’s part in this celebration.

Obviously, we still have a long way to go in our journey to achieve equal rights for our LGBT brothers and sisters. The very existence of our Dear Obama campaign shows the need for us to stand up and speak out. Those of us encouraged by Bill Clinton becoming President in 1993 remember all too well the fight over “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the disappointment in the lack of significant advancement for LGBT rights. Obama becoming President won’t magically bring us to LGBT equality. It will, however, give us a leader who is not only an embodiment of civil rights progress for African-Americans, but also a leader who is open to hearing the call for LGBT civil rights. Sunday’s invocation by Robinson will be an encouraging reminder of this, and I look forward to hearing his message of hope.

We may have a powerful ally in the Cabinet soon

The Huffington Post just summarized a Wall Street Journal report on the American Rights at Work founding executive director, Mary Beth Maxwell, who would become the nation’s first openly gay Cabinet member if named Labor Secretary.

She does have considerable competition — Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, two key Obama allies throughout his campaign. But her nomination would do several things:

1. It would give an openly gay American an executive-level post, perhaps opening the door to more high-level appointments and high-profile elected officials for LGBT politicians.

2. It would place someone who identifies with the challenges of an LGBT worker and parent — for she has an adopted African-American son — in a position where LGBT Americans could use help. As head of the Department of Labor, Maxwell would oversee the division of government entrusted with overseeing workers’ rights and benefits, at a time where many LGBT Americans might have risked their jobs for participating in the Day Without a Gay campaign, and when many more LGBT Americans want to marry and be able to enroll their partners in their health plans.

3. It could, sadly, trigger a nomination battle in which the fear-based ideological battles we’ve seen in recent Presidential administrations could resurface.

It’s therefore worth following this story, to make sure that if Maxwell is nominated, that this doesn’t become the same sort of political mess that came with the debate over gays in the military and the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell “solution.” It may require straight and gay supporters of Maxwell to come forward and demand her confirmation.