The Obama agenda is filled with many ideas that will help LGBT families, like equal adoption rights, repeal of DOMA, and extension of federal recognition for civil unions. He also supports comprehensive sex education. But he has been silent on the federal funding of marriage promotion, a topic of many of my posts.
So this post is the first of a periodic series on ending that funding. Obama wants to cut wasteful spending from the federal budget. Start with eliminating what has not been spent of the $750,000,000 for marriage promotion, and don't add any more.
George Bush appointed Wade Horn as the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at HHS, giving him control over marriage promotion and abstinence-only sex education funding as well as other important family policy concerns. Horn used the position to fund an infrastructure that supports his right-wing ideological agenda.
That's why the person Obama appoints to this position is so critical. Last month, I wrote a letter to then Secretary-Designate Tom Daschle on behalf several groups (Alternatives to Marriage Project, Family Equality Council, Legal Momentum, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, and SIECUS) and noted academics, Anna Marie Smith, Jean Hardisty, and Judith Stacey. Read it here. Add your voice. If federal family policy is going to truly value all families, it needs to start at the top.