{"id":1174,"date":"2009-06-17T15:40:50","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T15:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.council.nyc\/press\/?p=1174"},"modified":"2016-12-13T15:41:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T15:41:52","slug":"statement-by-speaker-christine-c-quinn-re-president-barack-obama-signing-memorandum-on-federal-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/2009\/06\/17\/1174\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement by Speaker Christine C. Quinn Re: President Barack Obama Signing Memorandum on Federal Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Re: President Barack Obama Signing Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination<br \/>\n\u201cPresident Obama&#8217;s decision to sign a memorandum which extends federal benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees is a first step in the right direction, and I commend him for making it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, citing the Defense of Marriage Act as the reason, this decision does not include one of the most important benefits employees need &#8211; health insurance for their partners. This just affirms what the LGBT community and all fair minded Americans know &#8211; the Defense of Marriage Act must be overturned immediately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe LGBT community stood behind the President because we believed his message for change would make its way to our community &#8211; change that we have waited far too long for. Americans believe in the basic fundamentals of freedom and we must extend this ideal to all communities. I hope this first step will lead to many more comprehensive steps towards equality for all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Re: President Barack Obama Signing Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination<br \/>\n\u201cPresident Obama&#8217;s decision to sign a memorandum which extends federal benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees is a first step in the right direction, and I commend him for making it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, citing the Defense of Marriage Act as the reason, this decision does not include one of the most important benefits employees need &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong><small><a href=\"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/2009\/06\/17\/1174\/\">READ MORE<\/a><\/small><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}