Partners of Congress Members Face Inequity

JARED POLIS X390 (GETTY IMAGES) | ADVOCATE.COM

When the partner of freshman Colorado congressman Jared Polis went to get his Congressional Spouse ID last February at Member Services, he thought the new administration had dawned a new day for same-sex partners of Congress members.

“They just snapped my picture and wrote ‘spouse’ on it,” recalled Marlon Reis, who celebrated his sixth anniversary with Polis in September, though the couple is not legally married. “It took all of five minutes — it was so easy that it gave me the impression of a semipermanent policy change.”

But the 28-year-old’s attempt to join Polis in June on a congressional delegation (known as a “CODEL” in Hill-speak) was a different story entirely.

The U.S.-Mexico Interparliamentary Meeting was being held in Seattle as an opportunity for U.S. lawmakers to meet members of the Mexican congress, and the Defense Department was providing transport for the trip. The military routinely flies congressional delegations and under House rules, members can take their spouses with them if there’s space on the aircraft (when CODELS fly commercially, spouses are responsible for their own airfare).

“A week before the CODEL, Jared’s chief of staff contacted me to say that the military was trying to block my trip,” Reis said.

In fact, Polis’s chief of staff, Brian Branton, was jumping through a series of bureaucratic hoops so that Reis would be able to accompany Polis on the flight to Seattle, just as several other spouses were doing.

“I just assumed naively that it wouldn’t be an issue,” said Branton, “but it was a huge hassle and the inequity was disturbing.”

The delegation was scheduled to leave June 5, and on June 1, Branton received an e-mail from the Committee on Foreign Affairs that the Speaker’s Office of Interparliamentary Affairs said Reis would be barred from travel because the Department of Defense doesn’t allow members to take anyone who isn’t a spouse.

Branton then called Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office to find a fix for the problem and also contacted Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s chief of staff, Bill Murat, who had encountered the same issue regarding travel for Baldwin’s partner, Lauren Azar, a year earlier.

“After talking with Bill, I realized just how frustrating this was going to be,’” Branton remembered.

Eleveld is The Advocate's Washington Correspondent. You can follow her twitter feeds at: http://twitter.com/kerryeleveld.

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Reader Comments

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Name: Isaac
Date posted: 12/14/2009 9:51:08 PM
Hometown: Chicago, IL

Comment:
Laurent, the president signed an executive order extending benefits to domestic partners of federal employees, which not only included Hillary’s State Department, but other federal departments as well. This is something in the positive direction, so you can’t say that Obama has done nothing for gay rights. He has also signed off on hate crimes legislation. This article highlights the failings of congressional leadership when their own members aren’t even extended the same rights. I didn’t hear this much complaining when Clinton and Bush were in office. Now, we are at least we are seeing some movement on the issues. We have three more years to see what Obama’s full record will be on gay issues. I think that we need to be very proactive in advocating for our rights, but to not even give him and our congress a chance will get us nowhere.
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Name: Capt Twining
Date posted: 12/14/2009 9:25:13 PM
Hometown: NE Mich

Comment:
These poor people are mentally ill and deserve our prayers more than anything else. Homosexuality is a sin that should not be enabled no matter how pure the intentions of the enabler.
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Name: Laurent
Date posted: 12/14/2009 8:05:29 PM
Hometown: World

Comment:
Anonymous, please give credit where credit is due, it was the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who elevated your partner to personhood not the President. It was after her announcement that Obahma signed the order giving partner benefits to government workers. She did this when she found out how the state department was treating the partnert of one of the gay ambassadors and found it was wrong so changed the out of country policies for everyone to have equal status. Obahma has done nothing for the LGBT community even though it was part of his election promises, and he had the nerve to give himself a B rating in his interview with Oprah, which was nothing more than her fawning all over the Obahma's and never questioning any of the promises he made to America, that he has not even chosen to address.
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Name: Allen
Date posted: 12/14/2009 5:58:49 PM
Hometown: Los Angeles (formerly)

Comment:
DISCRIMINATION is a daily part of life for all gay people in the US. There is one set of laws for straights and one set of laws for gays, in South Africa they called it apartheid, here in the US our politicians call it normal. I sure wish I was able to get the speaker of the house's attention to help me out! I also wish I could get my Senator's and the Presidents attention to help me out. I wrote lots of letters and nothing happens, we are the invisible. (living exiled for 3 and a half years in France waiting to be able to sponsor my partner of 15 years for a visa so we can return home to the US)
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Name: Stephen
Date posted: 12/14/2009 5:29:40 PM
Hometown: Austin, TX

Comment:
Wow, we endure that every day and this is the first time he has to suffer because he can't get his free trip. Some of us don;t have health care but the only thing that matters is a free trip. Talk about being disconnected from the people.
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Name: Anonymous
Date posted: 12/14/2009 4:48:42 PM
Hometown: Washington DC

Comment:
I work for the federal government in a foreign affairs agency and this sort of blatant inequality has been so much a part of our lives that we just take it for granted (I could tell you a lot worse stories than what the Polis-Reis' went through). But, since President Obama took office, my agency has changed its rules so that gay partners can get the same benefits as straight couples when we transfer overseas. So let's give credit where credit's due. The President may not be moving as fast as others would like on high-profile LGBT issues, but I will forever be grateful to him for elevating my partner to being a whole human being within the U.S. foreign affairs community.
Back to top Report Abuse
Name: Roger Burr
Date posted: 12/14/2009 4:09:13 PM
Hometown: Marble Hill

Comment:
My, My, My.... Open and BLATANT discrimination in the very halls of Congress! What's this world coming to?? Let's see what, if anything, our 'Fierce Advocate' in the White House plans to do about THIS debacle! If experience is any teacher, the answer is; NOTHING.
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Name: Carol
Date posted: 12/14/2009 3:55:46 PM
Hometown: MO

Comment:
President Obama this is happening right in your backyard. It's nice that we heterosexual people can just feel assured of all the perks of marriage, as what Branton, etc. doesn't have, and we can celebrate Christmas or whatever you celebrate at this time of year with economy picking-up, and you giving yourself a B+, and things are getting better, but the GLBT haven't gotten anything in their Santa Stlockings, but a hate bill passed, and some help for receiving benefits, that all of us have and have had for yrs. I'm sorry to be so ungrateful for what I have, but I'd be a whole lot more thankful if you would do something about the GLBT's equal rights in the next year.
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Name: Sam B.
Date posted: 12/14/2009 3:48:31 PM
Hometown: Menlo Park

Comment:
(1) Why in the hell are the taxpayers footing the bill for ANY spouse - het or homo? We're paying Congress to WORK - not to screw around with their spouses. If they want their spouse along - they can pay for it themselves. (2) He (Reis) is NOT the Representative's spouse. They were never legally wed. If he wants to call himself a spouse, they should go to a state where it's legal to marry - AND GET MARRIED. Then and ONLY then should he be considered a spouse. We (the gay community) shouldn't be playing fast and loose with the rules just because the rules don't suit us right now. It damages our credibility and weakens the validity of same sex marriages where it IS legal. (3) $1,140 for a round trip from DC to Seattle??? On top of that is the hotel and food costs? What did Mr. Reis offer his "spouse" on this trip that made it worth our tax dollars???
Back to top Report Abuse
Name: Meg
Date posted: 12/14/2009 2:47:57 PM
Hometown: Tampa Bay

Comment:
And yet, people still have the audacity to claim our community is asking for "special rights"! Nothing special about wanting to be treated with the same dignity and respect as the spouses of other congressional delegates?

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