Huebner is based in Shanghai, where he handles international
arbitration and mediation cases for a U.S. firm. A graduate of Princeton
University and Yale Law School, he is also the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation’s general counsel and previously served on the group’s board.
He also has chaired the California
Law Revision Commission, served as president of the Los Angeles Quality and
Productivity Commission and taught at the University of Southern California’s
Gould School of Law.
Obama’s announcement is a gesture
just days before he speaks to a gay rights fundraising dinner on Saturday and
gay activists march on Washington on Sunday.
Obama’s relationship with gay
activists has been rocky since his election. Gays and lesbians objected to the
invitation of evangelist Rev. Rick Warren’s to participate in Obama’s
inauguration because of Warren’s support for repealing gay marriage in California.
Obama responded by having Episcopalian Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the
denomination’s first openly gay bishop, participate at another event.
As president, Obama hasn’t taken
any concrete steps urging Congress to rescind the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t
tell” policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military as long as
they don’t disclose their sexual orientation or act on it. Some former chairmen
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have acknowledged the policy is flawed.
The office of the current chairman,
Adm. Mike Mullen, signed off on a journal article that called for lifting the
ban, arguing that the military is forcing thousands of military members to live
dishonest lives.
Obama also pledged during the
campaign to work for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which limits how
state, local and federal bodies can recognize partnerships and determine
benefits. But lawyers in his administration defended the law in a court brief.
White House aides said they were only doing their jobs to back a law that was
already on the books.
Officials said Obama’s slow and
incremental approach to the politically charged issues has produced some gains.
“The president made commitments on
those issues – not just, quite frankly, in a presidential race but ran on some
of those commitments in a Senate race,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs
said. “They are commitments that are important to him and he is intent on
making progress on those issues and is working with the Pentagon to ensure, at
least in ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ that we make progress on it.”
Obama has expanded some federal
benefits to same-sex partners, but not health benefits or pension guarantees.
He has allowed State Department employees to include their same-sex partners in
certain embassy programs available to opposite-sex spouses.
On Wednesday, Gibbs said the
administration was working with the Office of Personnel Management to expand
those benefits.
But that remains far short of his
campaign rhetoric.
“At its core, this issue is about
who we are as Americans,” Obama said a 2007 statement on gay issues. “It’s
about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of
equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect.”
