Speaking on authority from the White House, John Berry, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, spoke with the Advocate about the recent outrage over the Obama administration’s defense of DOMA, as well as other LGBT legislative priorities…

On recent controversy over the administration’s defense of DOMA:

This president took a solemn oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and he does not get to decide and choose which laws he enforces. He has to enforce the laws that have been enacted appropriately and that he has inherited. It would be wrong for me or any of our community to advise him to lie or to shirk his responsibility. He’s doing his job. He has made clear that he stands for the repeal of DOMA. It will be part of this administration’s agenda to accomplish that act. We ought not waste energy and angst attacking him when we should be focusing the energy and effort on getting 218 votes in the house and 60 votes in the Senate, and that’s where we ought to target the energy and the strength of this community and this president is with us, this is our agenda and it’s his agenda.

Again no mention of the incest and underage marriage cases cited in the DOMA defense. Our anger is not out of angst, nor is it a waste of energy. Until the administration takes action on these issues, we should not be silent.

On hate crimes, ENDA, DADT and DOMA:

We have four broad legislative goals that we want to accomplish and legislation is one of these things where you’ve got to move when the opportunity strikes, so I’m going to list them in an order but it’s not necessarily going to go one, two, three, four. Obviously, I think the first opportunity is hate crimes and we’re hopeful that we can get that passed this week. We’re going to try, but if not, we’re going to keep at it until we get it passed. The second one ENDA, we want to secure that passage of ENDA, and third is we want to repeal legislatively “don’t ask don’t tell,” and fourth, we want to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

When asked about DADT later in the interview, Berry walks back his opinion on the passage of hate crimes legislation…

We don’t have the votes to do Hate Crimes right now, we don’t have the votes to do ENDA, how are we going [to get “don’t ask, don’t tell]?

And all of this before the “sun sets on this administration.”

Well, there you have it. That’s likely the most official response we are going to get. And dammit, it’s not good enough, not good enough at all. But it’s what we’ve all come to expect now from the Obama administraiton. I’ve skipped the parts of the interview focusing on granting more rights to gay Federal employees. But I’m not a federal employee. Nor is the vast majority of LGBT Americans. Any legislation should target EVERYONE in the LGBT community, not just at the federal level.

Minister Leroy Swailes of Oxon Hill, Maryland put on quite a show at the Washington DC gay marriage hearings last week as he put forth his arguments against same-sex marriage, citing bestiality, pedophilia and the anti-Christ in a nearly 4 minute rant. While some may find his words disturbing, it also borders on the ridiculous and absurd. Watch the freakshow below…

Just one thing I want to know… who the hell applauded Swailes at the end of his remarks? Those are the ones I’m really worried about.

Update: Visit our National Equality March section for the latest news on what’s going in DC this weekend.

Despite earlier news, permits have been secured for the National March for Equality, also known as “Meet on the Mall for Equality,” to take place on October 10-11, 2009 in Washington, DC. Organized by Cleve Jones, the goal of the event is to “demand EQUAL protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.”

A promotional video for the event has been released. Watch:

To find out more about the event please visit the links below:

National March for Equality website
Facebook
Twitter

On a personal note: I’m not sold on the idea… at least not yet. It’s on Columbus Day weekend, so won’t legislators be out of town? The notion of descending on our representatives en mass is very appealing, but if no one is there when we are there… then what’s the point?

Cleve Jones, whom I deeply respect also said “most people on the west coast will be able to come to this march for less than $700.” Cleve, in this economy, plus being unemployed, $700 isn’t cheap, I don’t have the cash just lying around to make the trip. Twice that if my husband comes. On top of that we pissed a lot of money away on Obama and Prop 8 last year. I suspect a lot of folks are in a similar boat.

So I am wondering if our time and money is better spent on a local level, than making a trip to Washington, DC… which may ultimately be ignored by our leaders, and the media.

What do you think?

California Attorney General Jerry Brown and Andrew Pugno, attorney for Protect Marriage appeared on CNN discussing the latest challenge to Proposition 8 recently filed in federal court. Brown filed a brief in support of overturning ban yesterday. Watch: