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President Obama Talks DADT and DOMA Repeal

12/22/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Kerry Eleveld topped off her career at The Advocate with a one on one interview with President Barack Obama. Among the important information to come out of the interview is a time table for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. President Obama said to Ms Eleveld “My strong sense is [implementation] is a matter of months. Absolutely not years.” Given that the hate group Family Research Council is vowing to do everything it can to sabotage the repeal implementation, the President may want to get moving and moving fast on this repeal.

At the time of the interview, President Obama had not talked to Marine Commandant General James F. Amos in full, but did say that the general is “going to make it work.” Amos most recently came under fire for his comments about how repealing DADT could lead to the loss of a person’s limb or life.

Obama feels justifiably proud for having finally repealed the unjust and unconstitutional law.

The fight for equality is not over, and will not be over for some time, but many feel that it is nice to have gotten this far. The next big fights are the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. On the latter, Obama said that his “attitudes are evolving” regarding marriage equality, and also said:

“Like a lot of people, I’m wrestling with this. I’ve wrestled with the fact that marriage traditionally has had a different connotation. But I also have a lot of very close friends who are married gay or lesbian couples.”

The Department of Justice is apparently involved in investigating whether or not there is a way to repeal the law. Unfortunately, it is not going to be possible with the Republicans controlling the House to repeal it legislatively. Obama said:

“I have a whole bunch of really smart lawyers who are looking at a whole range of options. My preference wherever possible is to get things done legislatively. That may not be possible in DOMA’s case. That’s something that I think we have to strategize on over the next several months.”

The interview itself is seven pages long and can be read at the Advocate.

We certainly hope that Obama wished Ms Eleveld all the best and luck at her new job at Equality Matters.

At a press conference ending the year, President Obama discussed his feelings on marriage equality, but felt personally that civil unions would be enough. He does know that to many lesbians, gays and transpeople, civil unions would never be enough. It should be pointed out that the decision Brown v. Board of Education, et al. showed that separate but equal is never equal. For many, civil unions only serves to delegitimize lesbians, gays and transpeople and their relationships. He was asked the question in relation to relationships in the military.