News
Holder OKs attorneys general not defending marriage bans
‘I believe we must be suspicious of legal classifications based solely on sexual orientation’
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said state attorneys general don’t need to defend marriage bans in court (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key).
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told state attorneys general on Tuesday that refusing to defend same-sex marriage bans in court is consistent with the American idea that “all are created equal and entitled to equal opportunity.”
Holder made the remarks as part of his speech at the winter meeting for the National Association of Attorneys General, which this year took place in D.C. at the Ritz Carlton.
The attorney general said he believes state officials can decline to defend marriage bans in court as he maintained decisions not to defend laws “must be exceedingly rare” and not stem from policy disagreements.
“But in general, I believe we must be suspicious of legal classifications based solely on sexual orientation,” Holder said. “And we must endeavor – in all of our efforts – to uphold and advance the values that once led our forebears to declare unequivocally that all are created equal and entitled to equal opportunity.”
Holder’s remarks are consistent with his remarks during an interview published Monday in The New York Times in which he was quoted as saying attorneys general aren’t obligated to defend laws they believe are discriminatory.
As Holder noted, attorneys general in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Nevada and, most recently, Oregon have determined they cannot defend their state marriage bans in court following the Supreme Court decision against the Defense of Marriage Act. Each of the states that these official represent have continued to enforce the marriage bans as the litigation proceeds through the courts.
Holder said these decisions not to defend the bans against lawsuits seeking marriage equality is along with lines of his decision in February 2011 to no longer defend DOMA in court.
“As I’ve said before, this decision was not taken lightly,” Holder said. “Our actions were motivated by the strong belief that all measures that distinguish among people based on their sexual orientation must be subjected to a heightened standard of scrutiny – and, therefore, that this measure was unconstitutional discrimination.”
Doug NeJaime, who’s gay and a law professor at University of California, Irvine, said Holder’s declaration amounts to support for attorneys general who don’t wish to defend marriage bans in their states.
“While I anticipate that some state attorneys general will dismiss Holder’s comments as unnecessary meddling in state affairs, I view his remarks as a declaration regarding sexual orientation equality that is consistent with his — and the Administration’s — position on these issues,” NeJaime said. “And given that multiple attorneys general at the state level have now declined to defend their state marriage bans, he is giving them support.”
In recent months, Holder has been a mouthpiece for the Obama administration on the advancement of LGBT rights.
The attorney general delivered the announcement that the federal government would recognize same-sex marriages performed in Utah when they were briefly available in the state. More recently, Holder announced the Justice Department would recognize same-sex marriages for its purposes, which includes the right to decline to testify against a spouse in court and the ability to file jointly file bankruptcy.
“This, after all, is the essential duty to which all of us – as attorneys general – have been sworn: not just to win cases, but to see that justice is done,” Holder said. “This is the cause that brings us together in Washington this week – working to confront the threats and seize the opportunities before us. And this is the extraordinary task with which the American people have entrusted the leaders in this room – and the challenge that all justice professionals are called to address: not merely to use our legal system to settle disputes and punish those who have done wrong, but to answer the kinds of fundamental questions – about fairness and equality – that have always determined who we are and who we aspire to be, both as a nation and as a people.”
Iran
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Former ambassador to Germany claimed he has sneaked ‘gays and lesbians out of’ country
Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions of the United States, said on X on Tuesday that he has helped “sneak gays and lesbians out of Iran” and is seeing a change in attitudes in the country.
The post, which now has more than 25,000 likes since its uploading, claims that attitudes toward gays and lesbians are shifting amid massive economic protests across the country.
“For the first time EVER, someone has said ‘I want to wait just a bit,” the former U.S. ambassador to Germany wrote. “There is real hope coming from the inside. I don’t think you can stop this now.”
Grenell has been a longtime supporter of the president.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social days before his official appointment to the ambassador role. “He will be someplace, high up! DJT”
Iran, which is experiencing demonstrations across all 31 provinces of the country — including in Tehran, the capital — started as a result of a financial crisis causing the collapse of its national currency. Time magazine credits this uprising after the U.N. re-imposed sanctions in September over the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
As basic necessities like bread, rice, meat, and medical supplies become increasingly unaffordable to the majority of the more than 90 million people living there, citizens took to the streets to push back against Iran’s theocratic regime.
Grenell, who was made president and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year by Trump, believes that people in the majority Shiite Muslim country are also beginning to protest human rights abuses.
Iran is among only a handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
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