On June 17, 2009, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum directing Federal Agencies to extend certain federal employment benefits to employees’ same-sex partners and the children of those partners. The full text of that statement is available here:
- Presidential Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination
- Presidential Statement on the Memorandum and in Support of the Lieberman-Baldwin Benefits Legislation
- President Obama’s remarks on the occasion of the signing
- White house blog coverage of the event
On June 18, 2009, Secretary of State Clinton announced benefits for same-sex partners of Foreign Service Employees. Read her statement here. These events received a great deal of press coverage and attention from LGBT advocacy groups. Some of that coverage is linked here:
Organization Statements
- GLIFAA press release
- A Statement by the Human Rights Campaign, their Press Release, and further analysis of the Presidential Memorandum in the HRC Back Story
- The Council for Global Equality made a press release on the occasion of the signing
- The National Center for Transgender Equality made a statement.
- The Family Equality Council made a statement.
Press Coverage
- New York Times editorial
- New York Daily News analysis
- CNN Story on the changes
- Fox Nation coverage
- Washington Post article
- Coverage by the Human Rights Campaign Back Story of the State Department decision to recognize name changes of same-sex married individuals in passport applications
- Government Executive article outlining the changes
- CNN news analysis
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