Sunday, July 3, 2011

Significant and regrettable

A while ago the Department of Justice declared it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court challenges. Last Friday the DoJ filed a brief in one of those cases. It was a lot more than a simple "We won't defend that law." One part was a thorough discussion of why. Another part was a long discussion of the "significant and regrettable role" in discrimination of gays in all levels of government, especially the federal level. It then goes on to document that discrimination, starting with Eisenhower's executive order to add "sexual perversion" (meaning gays) to the reasons why a person might be fired from government employment. In a sense the DoJ is issuing an apology.

This significantly changes the dynamics of public perception and of the case itself.

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