Obama administration cranks up executive actions to give gays government benefits
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As Congress goes home for Christmas, the Obama administration is now using executive powers and other regulatory policies to benefit homosexuals.
This week, the Social Security Administration announced that it is starting to give homosexual couples “survivor benefits,” formerly reserved for heterosexual couples who were legally married. Such benefits were intended to benefit lifelong stay-at-home mothers upon their death of the family breadwinner. The Obama administration is currently limiting benefit recipients to those who have been “married” in a state where homosexual relationships are legal. This may change to incorporate couples in states where homosexuals cannot get “married.”
Last week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan continued the administration's efforts to help gay couples with student loans. Duncan said the administration would not differentiate between “married” homosexuals and wedded heterosexuals when compiling student data. It would use the same criteria when counting "married" couples of any sexual preference. Duncan had previously implemented a regulatory policy that changed how the federal government collects parental information for students.
Most recently, a former homosexual activist and lawyer was confirmed by the Senate – in one of its first “nuclear option” votes – to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Chai Feldblum, who received two Republican votes, was initially placed on the Commission by an Obama recess appointment. Feldblum was an important voice when the EEOC decided that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which does not mention transsexuals in any way, could be used to prosecute workplace "discrimination" against transgender employees.
Feldblum was a target of major criticism in 2009 because she wrote and said that, when there is a conflict between religious rights and “sexual liberty,” the latter “should win in most cases. There can be a conflict between religious liberty and sexual liberty, but in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win because that’s the only way that the dignity of gay people can be affirmed in any realistic manner.”
The criticism of Feldblum came as she was being considered for the EEOC, which ostensibly aims to apply existing laws to facilitate equal treatment for all parties.
In addition to regulatory changes, Barack Obama has refused to attend the opening ceremonies but instead sent a delegation of homosexual athletes to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, a move inspired in part because of Russia's law banning homosexual propaganda.
In September, Attorney General Eric Holder said Obama decided to not enforce a law that prevents homosexual couples from receiving military benefits.
Obama claims his view on homosexual relationships and gay “marriage” have “evolved” from when he was younger and opposed same-sex “marriage.” The evolution took place six months before the 2012 election.
With the finances of Social Security, student loan programs, and military benefits already in shambles, it is unclear that adding a new category of beneficiaries will improve matters.
