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Quinn to Obama: Support
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Quinn to Obama: Support
Partner Benefits

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New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn has come a long way since 1999, when she was arrested for marching as an out lesbian in the Fifth Avenue St. Patrick's Day parade. This year she was invited to the White House as an honored guest of President Barack Obama.

New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn has come a long way since 1999, when she was arrested for marching as an out lesbian in the Fifth Avenue St. Patrick's Day parade. This year she was invited to the White House as an honored guest of President Barack Obama.

Quinn, the Big Apple's first gay, first Irish, and first female city council speaker, had visited the White House several times during the Clinton administration but hadn't been back in eight years.

"It was an interesting moment," she said, "even though you're so honored to be there, there's still a part of you that, until we address the issue on Fifth Avenue, will always feel like wherever you are -- even if you're an honored guest -- there's still somewhere that you're not invited to be."

Quinn has boycotted New York's parade for years because organizers refuse to let LGBT marchers display anything that indicates their sexuality or support for gay issues.

For that reason, she felt particularly moved to say something not only about the Obama administration's diplomatic relations with Ireland but also about LGBT equality. So Quinn took her moment during a photo with the president to urge his support for two California court decisions stipulating that same-sex partners of federal court employees should be entitled to health benefits. Following the rulings, the federal Office of Personnel Management blocked the benefits, citing the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

"I asked the president to change the government's policy and position as it related to the recent rulings," she said. "He could immediately say, 'I'm not going to challenge that ruling,' and I think it would send a message about where he is headed and that he's certainly not moving backwards. If he doesn't stand by that ruling, it's a tremendous setback."

But Quinn didn't lose sight of Ireland either and thanked President Obama for his support of the peace process in Northern Ireland, where a couple of politically motivated murders have taken place within the past 10 days. Guests at the White House St. Patrick's Day celebration included British and Irish dignitaries, including Gerry Adams, the longtime leader of Sinn Fein. According to Quinn, who was invited to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day in 2007, they were all uniformly enthused by the Administration's response to the recent violence.

"Everyone was very happy with President Obama, who has been incredibly strong and steadfast in support of the peace process in the North," she said.

Quinn said the first lady wore a beautiful sleeveless green dress, and joked that Mrs. Obama's toned arms put "pressure on all of us to start doing more push-ups."

Asked about the pope's comments Tuesday that condom distribution does not help combat HIV/AIDS and in fact exacerbates the problem, Quinn said, "It's remarkable that somebody who is as significant a world leader as the pope would make a declarative statement like that not based in any fact or any science -- and he does that knowing there are people all across the world who will hear what he said and will do what he said. It's the height of irresponsibility and that's putting it kindly."

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