Faced with growing anger among gay and lesbian supporters, the Obama administration today announced extension of some benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees, but stopped short of offering full healthcare coverage.
John Berry, director of the White House Office of Personnel Management and the highest-ranking gay member of the administration, called the move "long overdue progress in our nation's journey to equality."
President Obama planned to sign a presidential memorandum implementing the policy changes at an Oval Office ceremony tonight.
The setting will cast an especially bright light on the president's action, but many expressed disappointment that the president was not taking bolder steps, particularly in the area of healthcare benefits.
"This is not enough. I want to be able to add my wife to my policy in the same way that every other federal employee can add their spouse to their policy," said Kate Kuykendall , a federal worker Los Angeles. She noted that the federal government is the only employer exempt from a California law that requires companies to extend benefits to same-sex partners.
Berry said Obama's move would allow employees' domestic partners to be added to the government's long-term insurance program, which covers such illnesses as Alzheimer's disease. The memorandum also would allow employees to use sick leave to take care of domestic partners and children, and would let the same-sex partners of diplomats use medical facilities at foreign posts.
Berry noted that further steps are limited by the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which is a source of great tension between the gay community and the White House. Last week, the Obama administration sparked outrage by filing a legal brief defending the law forbidding federal recognition of same-sex marriage, even though Obama opposed it during his presidential campaign.
"This is a first step, not a final step," Berry said. "This is an attempt to get our federal house in order."
As a candidate, Obama was a staunch supporter of gay and lesbian rights. Since taking office, however, he has disappointed many gay activists by defending some of the policies he criticized.
After months of grumbling, the anger exploded in public denunciations this week after the administration filed its legal brief in Orange County federal court.
"Anyway you cut it, it is a sickening document," David Mixner, a longtime gay rights advocate, wrote in a blog posting that echoed the sentiments expressed by many in the gay community. "What in the hell were they thinking?"
In a statement the day of the filing, administration attorneys said Obama considered the marriage ban discriminatory and wanted it rescinded, but was legally obligated to defend the law as long as it remained in force.
Although there is some sympathy for the president's position -- "He has enormous stuff on his plate that requires a lot of political capital," said Steve Elmendorf, a gay Democratic strategist -- many think the concerns of gays and lesbians are once again being shunted to second- and third-tier status.
Ken Sherrill, a Hunter College political scientist and gay activist, recalled how the Clinton administration started with great hope but ended in disappointment when the president, for tactical reasons, retreated on gay rights. President Clinton approved both the marriage bill and the policy preventing gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.
"There's a fear that Obama will prove to be a heartbreaker as well," Sherrill said.
Before today, Obama had reached out to the gay community in other ways. In addition to appointing Berry, he named a gay man to head the Export-Import Bank. The State Department promised to give partners of gay and lesbian diplomats benefits such as diplomatic passports and language training. In April, gay parents were invited for the first time to bring their children to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll
But critics say those gestures are meager beside the stack of grievances that started accumulating even before Obama took office. Many were angered when he picked pastor Rick Warren, a prominent opponent of same-sex marriage, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Then came the decision to discharge Army linguist Dan Choi after he declared in a cable television interview that he was gay.
The administration also intervened with the Supreme Court and opposed efforts to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" law forbidding gays from serving openly in the military. The justices sided with the president, declining to hear a constitutional challenge. White House officials say they want Congress to repeal the policy outright instead of having to intervene on a case-by-case basis.
Nothing, however, matches the outrage provoked by last week's court filing in Santa Ana supporting the Defense of Marriage Act. The fact that the brief was filed during Gay Pride Month, which Obama saluted with a formal proclamation, compounded the sense of insult.
"You have some appointments that have been good and a proclamation," said Sherrill, who has written extensively on the history of the gay rights movement, "and then two tangible areas where the administration has done something wrongheaded and offensive. Doing nothing at all would have been a helluva lot better."
Obama's approach to gay issues seems guided by the unhappy experience of Clinton, who started his administration with an unsuccessful fight to open the military to gay and lesbian service members. Clinton lost the battle; the result was "don't ask, don't tell," which allows gays to serve as long as they keep their sexual orientation a secret. The outcome angered many on both sides of the issue. Worse, Clinton squandered much of the goodwill that followed his election.
Now however, many think that Obama may have learned the lesson too well.
"Things have changed in the country," said Paul Begala, a top advisor during Clinton's early White House years. "I think some of the people in the White House are slow to apprehend that."
He cited gays in the military as a good example. When Clinton was pushing his overhaul policy, only 43% of Americans backed the change. Today, nearly 70% of Americans favor military service by openly gay men and women.
Others noted that there are no openly gay men or women among Obama's top advisors, and suggested that may result in a certain political tone-deafness. In many ways, some said, it appears as though Washington is lagging behind the rest of the country in the debate over gay rights.
"They're talking about hate-crimes legislation and 'don't ask, don't tell' while people are getting married in Iowa," said Elmendorf, the strategist, who spent years as a top aide on Capitol Hill. "It seems on this subject the politicians are a little bit behind where the American people are."
mark.barabak@latimes.com
Times staff writer Jessica Garrison contributed to this report.
