Gay federal workers still in legal limbo

By Joe Davidson, Tuesday, March 22, 8:24 PM

While the Obama administration’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act is evolving, federal employees who have been victimized by the law remain where they always have been — stuck without benefits for their same sex spouses.

Susan Symonds/Infinity Portrait Design / - Dean Hara, whose same-sex partner was former representative Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) has been unable to collect survivor benefits or his late partner’s pension.

Though DOMA opponents hail the Obama administration’s recent decision to abandon its defense of the law as “momentous,” in practical terms they are no closer to securing victory.
This leaves them unable to provide their loved ones with the same benefits straight spouses have.
Postal clerk Nancy Gill said “limbo is a good word” for the state she’s in.
Gill has sued the Office of Personnel Management in order to get employer-sponsored health insurance for her spouse, Marcelle Letourneau. She and Letourneau have been together since 1980 and have two children. Tey were legally married in 2004 in Massachusetts, but that means nothing to the federal government.

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