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Senate committee advances gay troops’ benefits bill

Charlie Morgan Act would ensure gay veterans receive spousal benefits

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Charlie Morgan, gay news, Washington Blade
A Senate committee has advanced legislation named for Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan (Blade file photo by Michael Key).

A Senate committee has advanced legislation named for Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan that benefits gay troops. (Blade file photo by Michael Key).

A Senate committee advanced legislation on Wednesday that would ensure married gay service members can receive benefits — including veteran’s benefits — for their same-sex spouses.

The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs approved by voice vote as part of a package of additional bills legislation known as the Charlie Morgan Act, which would change the definition of spouse in U.S. code governing troop benefits to ensure spousal benefits flow to gay service members.

The legislation is named after Charlie Morgan, a New Hampshire guardsman who battled incurable breast cancer as she was a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by gay troops against the Defense of Marriage Act. Morgan, who was seeking veteran’s benefits for her spouse, Karen Morgan, succumbed to the diseased in February before the Supreme Court struck down DOMA on June 26.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the chief sponsor of the bill, said in a statement approval by the committee was a tribute to the late guardsman.

“Every individual who serves in uniform should have access to the benefits they’ve earned,” Shaheen said. “Charlie served on the front lines for our country, but because of her sexual orientation her family has been wrongfully being denied many of the same benefits given to those who stood beside her.”

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling against Section 3 of DOMA, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said he’d work to implement spousal benefits for gay troops that weren’t previously allowed under the anti-gay law.

But Title 38, the portion of U.S. code governing veterans’ benefits, defines marriage as an opposite-sex union independently of DOMA. Benefits afforded to veterans under this law include disability compensation and the right to be buried together in a state or national veterans’ cemetery. It’s unclear whether these benefits will flow to veterans with same-sex spouses even with the court ruling against DOMA.

Shaheen concluded passage of the Charlie Morgan Act would complement the Supreme Court ruling against DOMA to ensure gay veterans receive the same benefits as their straight counterparts.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on DOMA was a victory for the belief that all Americans are to be treated equally under the law, and I am pleased the Veteran’s Committee has built on the landmark progress we’ve seen for marriage equality,” Shaheen said. “I hope the full Senate will move forward on the Charlie Morgan Act so that finally no spouse, child or family is denied benefits they have earned and deserve.”

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Politics

Joe Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer

The former president and his family are reviewing treatment options, according to a statement

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President Joe Biden (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

According to a statement from his personal office on Sunday, former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.

“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.

Biden and his family “are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” the statement said. “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”

“Cancer touches us all,” the former president posted on X Monday. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

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Politics

Pete Buttigieg, eyeing a presidential run, holds Iowa town hall

Former DOT secretary defended trans rights

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Pete Buttigieg (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

After acknowledging during an interview on Tuesday that he is considering a bid for the White House in 2028, Pete Buttigieg stepped onto a stage in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a 45-minute town hall where he looked and sounded very much a candidate launching his presidential campaign.

The former U.S. Transportation Secretary warned that “we are being tested on nothing less” than the strength of America’s commitments to freedom and democracy over the next four years of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Rather than “hang back” while those in power “screw up,” he said now is the time to advance and articulate an agenda charting a new path forward for the country, including by restoring access to abortion and better addressing the challenges and meeting the needs of the nation’s veterans and with their families and communities.

As Democrats work to rebuild with an eye toward retaking control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, the party has wrestled with questions of whether and to what extent last year’s electoral defeat may have been attributable to the adoption of policy positions that were unpopular or out of step with views held by key parts of the electorate.

Buttigieg on Tuesday stressed the importance of identifying which parts of the platform should be revisited, the areas in which a greater diversity of viewpoints should be tolerated and welcomed into the Democratic coalition, and when to provide room for disagreement and debate. 

As an example, he took the matter of whether and in which circumstances athletes should be allowed to compete on sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity but inconsistent with their birth sex. 

“I think we do need to revisit some of the things that we have had to say policy-wise that haven’t kept up with the times as a party,” he said, adding, “Americans may have questions about how to make sure sports are safe and fair, which I get.” 

At the same time, “that doesn’t ever mean throwing vulnerable people under the bus,” Buttigieg said — and not just because that would be wrong, but also because it’s bad politics for Democrats. 

For example, “Americans understand that your gender identity shouldn’t affect whether you get to vote,” Buttigieg said, referencing policies passed by conservative lawmakers in Iowa and several other states that would render voters ineligible to cast their ballots in cases where there are discrepancies in the information listed on their official documents, records, and government-issued IDs. The rules are expected to disproportionately impact transgender people who are far likelier than their cisgender counterparts  to have updated the gender markers and names listed on their driver’s licenses, for example.

Buttigieg, a decorated U.S. Navy Reserve officer who was deployed to Afghanistan, also raised an example of unpopular anti-trans policymaking, the Trump-Vance administration’s ban on military service by trans soldiers: “Americans understand,” he said, “that if you are, for example, a soldier who is doing a good job, who is getting good ratings from commander who is contributing to the readiness of this mission, who is ready to put their life on the line, who happens to be transgender, you ought to be honored and not kicked out of the military.”

The line drew applause from attendees, who included a number of veterans including members and staff from VoteVets, the progressive advocacy group that organized the town hall.

Also in attendance on Tuesday were supporters who wore official merchandise from Buttigieg’s 2020 run, which began with his surprise first-place finish in the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses ahead of then-former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — a transformational moment for the openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Ind., who thereafter emerged as a rising star in his party and quickly become a formidable force in American politics on the national stage.

Many elected officials and other influential stakeholders within the Democratic Party now consider Buttigieg the strongest or one of the strongest of its communicators. His name has often been floated as a strong choice to lead the ticket as the Democratic presidential nominee.And he seems well positioned for a run in 2028. Even so, this far in advance of the election candidates are more circumspect about discussing their plans or their thinking about a bid for the White House so far in advance of the election.

However, Trump’s second administration and the new Congress led in both chambers by Republican loyalists seems to have prompted a number of other top Democrats to dispense with the coquettishness. A report in Politico notes that Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo have recently either made overtures signaling they are considering a run or declined opportunities to deny it.

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Garcia confronts Noem over gay asylum seeker ‘forcibly removed’ to El Salvador

Andry Hernández Romero is makeup artist from Venezuela

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Andry Hernández Romero (photo credit: Immigrant Defenders Law Center)

California Congressman Robert Garcia on Wednesday asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the well-being of a gay asylum seeker from Venezuela who the U.S. “forcibly removed” to El Salvador.

The gay Democrat during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing asked Noem whether Andry Hernández Romero is “alive” and whether “we can check and do a wellness check on him.”

“This individual is in El Salvador, and the appeal would be best made to the president and to the government of El Salvador,” Noem told Garcia.

The Trump-Vance administration in March “forcibly removed” Hernández, who asked for asylum because of persecution he suffered due to his sexual orientation and political beliefs, and other Venezuelans from the U.S. and sent them to El Salvador.

The White House on Feb. 20 designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.” President Donald Trump on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.”

Alvaro M. Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a Los Angeles-based organization that represents Hernández, said officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed their client is a Tren de Aragua member because of his tattoos.

The Washington Blade on April 17 reported Hernández was sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT.

Garcia, along with U.S. Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) last month met with U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador William Duncan and embassy staffers in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital. The lawmakers did not visit CECOT, but Garcia told the Blade that the embassy agreed to ask the Salvadoran government to “see how (Hernández) is doing and to make sure he’s alive.”

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