by: Pam Spaulding
Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 09:00:00 AM EST
January 20 cannot get here soon enough. I've had it with these brain-dead bigoted tools of the Bush Admin who reach high up in their posteriors to pull out BS like this to justify discrimination.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/01/chuck-and-larry-defense/">Think Progress:
In September, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=4567a0c5-c026-461d-8b28-d30898f5e3d9">considered legislation that would provide federal benefits to same-sex domestic partners of federal employees. Howard Weizmann, the deputy director of the U.S. Office Of Personnel Management, objected to the bill because it "
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/092408Weizmann.pdf">could lead to fraud and abuse in the programs we administer." Weizmann claimed that the office was unaware of any interest from federal employees for such benefits. He even evoked a fictional movie plot of two heterosexual New York firefighters who pretend to be a gay couple to suggest such fraud
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/12/01/open-season/">would be a problem in real life:
First of all, to suggest that we are being far-fetched in the sense that these benefits are open to fraud or abuse. It's not an unrealistic concern. I would suggest even Hollywood has discussed this in a movie with Adam Sandler. In which, I think, 'Chuck and Larry' get married, which the subject of the movie, was quite frankly, was insurance fraud, along the lines of what we're discussing. This is not far fetched and it's not disingenuous to suggest such.
Should we remove fed benefits from heterosexual couples because some marry under false pretenses in order to obtain a green card for the immigrant spouse?
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8460I've known plenty of straight AND gay people who have married for the exclusive purpose of either citizenship or insurance. Using the 'Chuck & Larry' defense to deny rights just to the LGBT community is myopic, which shouldn't come as any surprise from the Bush administration.
I also belong to a private email group with a lot of inside knowledge about what is going down with this bill. It passage looks promising once the Bushies have taken their strangle-hold off of progress in this country. FOr those in support of same-sex marriage, you can chalk this up as a
major development in equality.