The First Openly LGBT Cabinet Member?

Published December 11, 2008 @ 07:42PM PT

So what are you doing next week between December 17-19? How about planning to call the Obama transition team as part of a nationwide push to encourage President-Elect Obama to select Mary Beth Maxwell as Secretary of Labor?

Maxwell, the founding Executive Director of American Rights at Work, is supposedly being considered for Obama's Secretary of Labor. Her appointment would be historic, because as an openly gay woman, Maxwell would become the first ever LGBT cabinet member.

This week, a Facebook group launched calling for the nationwide days of action next week to urge Obama to appoint Maxwell to the post. A complementary Web site, www.equalrep.com, also launched to support Maxwell.

This goes well beyond the fact that she's a lesbian. Maxwell is seen as one of the most qualified candidates for the job, hands down. She's got the full support of former Rep. David Bonior, a Michigan Democrat and former Presidential campaign manager for Sen. John Edwards, as well as support from the AFL-CIO, the Change to Win Federation, the CEO and President of American Income Life Insurance, and the Human Rights Campaign, to name a few.

Check out the Facebook group, and next week plan on giving the Obama administration a nudge by voicing your support for Maxwell. Here's hoping she makes history.

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Comments (7)

This is a class A appointment if it is made.

Senate confirmation would be problematic, for neocons MUST vote against what they call the "HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA" for their low-information voters who keep them in office.

David Bonior of MI was the liberal Democrat who whipped for Dick Gephard and Tom Foley who was majority leader and speaker. He voted against NAFTA and was one of few like Marci Kaptur of OH to work for the working man and woman and union wages.

Bonior did not stay in the Congress after the first two years of the Gingrich speakership. He realised that the neocon and the neolibs in his caucus were of one mind and heart. I respect David Bonior and his help as a heterosexual liberal ally in many struggles for all minorities in this nation.

Posted by A B on 12/12/2008 @ 05:57AM PT
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Aside from her psychosexual orientation, does anyone know what kind of political philosophy that she holds assumedly within the Democratic Party? I have tried to find out, but to no avail so far.

Secretary of Labor is an important job in a Democratic administration. Frances Perkins was the first woman ever appointed to the Cabinet and was labor secretary for FDR.

Republicans usually appoint anti-labor businessmen in the Labor Department to assure that the working class person loses any privileges that a previous Democratic administration provided them.

Listen, I know that LOG CABIN REPUBLICANS and GAY AND LESBIAN CONSERVATIVE AND CENTRIST DEMOCRATS exist in the political family of the LGBT community. She is a lesbian ! GR8!!!
But WHO is she?

Posted by A B on 12/12/2008 @ 06:06AM PT
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My dear friends,

There is not ONE homophobic organization that can seriously raise my blood pressure and my ire, than Focus on the Family.

Whenever I find the need to contribute to needy causes on a yearly basis, it is organizations like www.soulforce.org that usually heads the list. The Rev. Dr. Mel White knows these people better than most. This gay man was once heterosexually married, fathered a now adult actor son, ghost wrote for Jerry Falwell and for Pat Robertson, and formed Soulforce to combat the ignorance, prejudice and destructive hatred of these groups.

Yes, Focus on the Family was co-founded by individuals who include a man who is now estranged from Dobson and has formally apologized to the gay and lesbian community.

Yet, imagine my surprise, and mixed emotions I felt when I perused the www.365gay.com site and found this link: http://www.365gay.com/opinion/corvino-friends-with-the-enemy/.

Obviously there is this gay tenured professor of philosophy at Wayne State University (with committed but legally unmarried partner) who debates this PR person who is heterosexually married and has become a friend....although the person has not yet come to the point of respecting the relationship in the same way that it is reciprocated.

Decidedly, the most pernicious opponent is one with a silk glove over an iron fist. Jesus Himself took a whip to the money changers. Jesus was angry - justifiably angry.....and having seen the pain and suicides that these groups have moral guilt for, I am equally justified.

I do not necessarily ever expect these individuals to respect me or to love me.....but they will have to accept the fact that in a legal sense, in a secular sense, NO ONE removes my civil rights without a struggle and intense anger at them for their actions if not their beliefs.

Posted by A B on 12/12/2008 @ 06:32AM PT
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sorry for the double posting, it must be my laptop or my heavy fickled finger of fate....LOL

Posted by A B on 12/12/2008 @ 06:35AM PT
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Amen Raymond Sawyer.

I think it will be great when I don't know anyones sexual orientation. At that point, we will have achieved equality.

Marriage should be a mute Federal point. Rights for Citizens. Then sexual preference will be mute.

Posted by Mark Sullivan on 12/12/2008 @ 07:05AM PT
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Yes, Mark, in the eight and almost nine nations where federal or national civil marriage is legal for all couples, regardless of psychosexual orientation, the dialogue has pushed beyond the language of struggle.

I am married to a Canadian. We live in MA, USA where my Canadian marriage is recognized as valid for state purposes. We are legal strangers on the federal level. We spend our summers in Nova Scotia, Canada, my spouse's boyhood home on the bay.

We are both father to our son. He is an American and a Canadian citizen. I am an American and he is a Canadian. Right now, it is simple. We follow the visa laws for the US. I have no problem in Canada because I am married to a Canadian. In NS, and in all of Canada, whether they are right wing or not, my marriage is legal.

They do not have to love or respect me. I am legally married. They can have whatever theological views that float their boat. I am legally married. My child knows that in MA his parents are married. He is only 6 and doesn't understand that outside NY, CT and MA, his parents are legal strangers. When in Canada, his parents are always married.

This is a simple statement and why the Right Wing Theocrats fight so hard. IT IS ALL ABOUT MARRIAGE....MARRIAGE.....MARRIAGE....NOTHING ELSE IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT......MARRIAGE.....

The Dutch know it, the Belgians know it, the Spanish know it, the Canadians know it, the South Africans know it, the Norwegians and Swedes know it, the Nepalese know it.

Even countries who provide lesser rights do it on a national level.
The majority of these countries will go to marriage soon enough.

When will America give all their citizens equality and justice under law? I know the answer.....the last nation to do so.

Posted by A B on 12/12/2008 @ 05:53PM PT
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If you do nothing else in a spiritual vein this Sunday, may I suggest that you visit www.soulforce.org and view the front page video DON'T TELL ME WHO TO LOVE. Bring some tissues.

Posted by A B on 12/14/2008 @ 08:58AM PT
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Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.