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UNDER THE RADAR

JUSTICE — PRESIDENT OBAMA REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO EXPAND LGBT RIGHTS, HIGHLIGHTS PROGRESS: During a White House reception yesterday celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month, President Obama pledged “to push ahead with his gay rights agenda” and declared that “committed gay and lesbian couples deserve the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country.” Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reaffirmed the Obama administration’s commitment to the LGBT community, stating, “Human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights.” Both Obama and Clinton highlighted the administration’s progress thus far to end discrimination against gay and lesbians at home and abroad. In addition to the pending repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, the Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky notes that in April, “Obama issued a memorandum instructing the Department of Health and Human Services to develop regulations requiring all hospitals that receive federal Medicare and Medicaid funding to end discrimination in hospital visitation.” Thereafter in June, the President released a memorandum directing agencies to “extend a host of benefits to their employees’ same-sex domestic partners as permitted by law.” The strides in other governmental agencies, while small, are important to note. In the State Department, it is now easier for transgender people to change their passports and the “agency’s ‘equal opportunity statement’ will include gender identity” for the first time. Additionally, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) now requires “grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals.” While advocates for gay rights groups consider these steps to be “significant,” several emphasize the need for the administration to do more, particularly on “big-ticket items” like the “repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and laws barring discrimination in employment and easing the path toward gay adoption.” While Obama pledged last night to move forward on repealing DOMA, under orders from the White House, the Labor Department is set today to “expand the rights of gay workers by allowing them to take family and medical leave to care for sick or newborn children of same-sex partners.”