Weekly Political Roundup

FlagsThis week’s political news makes up for in quality what it lacks in quantity—a couple of major issues in play here. (As always, I’ll tackle parenting and youth issues in a separate roundup.)

  • A federal judge issued an injunction to put an “immediate” stop to all Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell discharges and investigations. The Staff Judge Advocate Generals duly sent out an e-mail to their subordinates about the ruling, noting a possible request for a stay by the government, and stating that in the meantime, the injunction is valid. Then the Department of Justice filed the expected request for a stay. Then President Obama (to whom the DOJ reports) told a youth town hall at Howard University, “This is not a question of whether the policy will end. This policy will end and it will end on my watch.” Huh? He explained, “But I do have an obligation to make sure that I am following some of the rules. I can’t simply ignore laws that are out there. I’ve got to work to make sure that they are changed.”
  • It’s been a busy week for the Department of Justice, which also filed appeals in two challenges of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA): Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. United States of America.
  • And yes, federal employees can purchase health insurance for their pets, but not their same-sex partners. Well, not exactly. The Office of Personnel Management has responded to this claim with a memo noting that the pet insurance is offered by Aetna, a participating carrier in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), but such insurance is not a federal benefit. Apparently, Aetna was unclear about this in some of its communications.
  • LGBT activists in North Carolina delivered hundreds of empty Froot Loops boxes to state Rep. Larry Brown (R) to protest an e-mail he sent to Republican colleagues calling gay people “queers” and “fruitloops.”

Around the world:

  • An appeals court in France has refused to recognize transgender woman Delphine Ravisé-Giard as female, even though the French Air Force was. Their reasoning? Her transition was not “irreversible” and her breasts were not large enough. That’s offensive on so many levels I don’t even know where to begin.
  • The U.K.’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will undergo “significant changes,” although it escaped being cut like 192 other quangos—which I mention mostly because it lets me use the word “quango” (a non-governmental public body), a word I don’t get to write nearly often enough, even in Scrabble. The Expert Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS and the Independent Advisory Group of Sexual Health and HIV, however, will be reformed and replaced, respectively.
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