photo by ArtChick
New rights for same-sex couples
February 08, 2014, 03:08 pm
By Megan R. Wilson and Mike Lillis
The Obama administration will continue the extension of federal benefits to married same-sex couples as heterosexual couples, Attorney General Eric Holder will announce on Saturday.
The Justice Department plans to issue a policy memo on Monday, which will allow same-sex couples to be able to file jointly for bankruptcy and will mandate that they will not be compelled to testify against each other in trial, among other new rights.
Holder will deliver the news at a gala thrown by the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel New York City Saturday night.
“Just like during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the stakes involved in this generation’s struggle for LGBT equality could not be higher. Then, as now, nothing less than our country’s commitment to the notion of equal protection under the law was on the line,” Holder will say in his speech, according to an excerpt.
“As attorney general, I will not let [the Justice] Department be simply a bystander during this important moment in history.”
