Oct 09, 2009  |  By: Chris Johnson  | COMMENTS     

As gay rights supporters descend on Washington, D.C., this weekend for the National Equality March, congressional lobbyists are working on bills that would advance LGBT rights — and some initiatives could see activity in the coming weeks.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, is among those working to advance the LGBT agenda in Congress. In an interview Tuesday, she said she expects the march to help move these bills forward.

“Knowing that there are people coming together who care about these issues, I certainly think will have an impact,” she said. “These are people who are constituents of members of Congress. These are many people, I’m sure, who voted for this president, and I suspect they will not let either their members of Congress or the president off the hook when it comes to our equality.”

One piece of LGBT legislation that may soon see activity is hate crimes legislation. The Senate included in a major defense bill a provision that would allow the Justice Department to assist in the prosecution of bias-motivated crimes against LGBT people that result in death or serious injury.

Conferees on Wednesday completed work on the fiscal 2010 Defense authorization bill and the hate crimes measure remains intact.

On Tuesday, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) attacked the hate crimes provision on the House floor and said soldiers would “be held hostage” by including it in the defense legislation. House members who support the hate crimes provision, including gay Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), rebuked his critique.

On the same day, a Republican motion in the House that would have instructed conferees to strip the hate crimes provision from the defense bill lost on a 178-234 vote.

One change that supporters of the legislation were hoping conferees would make is the elimination of controversial amendments that the Senate added to the hate crimes provision. These amendments would authorize the death penalty for certain hate crimes and require that all hate crimes prosecutions be pursuant to guidelines established by the U.S. attorney general.

Trevor Thomas, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, said the death penalty amendment was removed from the conference report, but the attorney general guidance amendment remained.

Carey said the Task Force was particularly concerned about the death penalty amendment and was hoping it would be “pulled out” in conference.

“We would hope that the conferees would see the wisdom in pulling off that particular item,” she said. “I would say it carries a particular irony being attached to a hate crimes bill, but we do hope it’s pulled out.”

Another bill that could soon see activity is legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a 1993 law that prohibits openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military.

Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said in a panel discussion last week that he’s expecting a Senate repeal bill to emerge in a couple weeks. A hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee also is expected this fall.

On the House side, Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) has taken lead sponsorship of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, the bill that would repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” As of Tuesday, Murphy had signed up 176 House members as co-sponsors. He earlier said that he expects hearings in the House Armed Services Committee in the winter or spring.

On Tuesday, Murphy hosted a special order hour on the House floor, where opponents of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” discussed the impact of the law. In his speech, Murphy said repealing the ban on open service is “vital to our national security” and noted that around 13,000 service members have been discharged under the law.

“It makes no sense that we spend $1.3 billion to train these heroes up and then to just kick them out because of their sexual orientation,” he said.

Carey said repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is important not only to allow LGBT people to serve openly, but also because the U.S. military offers unique opportunities to some LGBT Americans.

“By having this policy stand,” she said, “we’re telling people who do not have the financial resources otherwise that they are going to be shut out from not only serving their country they’d like to serve, but getting an education and skills that will provide them with a livelihood for many years to come.”

In addition to working on advancing LGBT legislation in Congress, advocates are working on including the LGBT community in larger issues, such as health care reform.

Carey said health care reform legislation is important because it “will have ...