The President has a choice when it comes to defending and enforcing bigoted laws, as we’ve been saying all along, and as most experts now admit when it comes to DADT, but much of the same logic applies to DOMA as well. It’s just the apologists and the folks wanting to work in the administration who are still defending Obama’s defense of DOMA and DADT. And now that defense is forcing legally married gay couples to be literally ripped apart by the Obama administration.

ABC News:

Joshua Vandiver, a Colorado native who is earning his Ph.D. in politics at Princeton University, said he is the studious type who has rarely embraced activism. But now, just months into his legal marriage to Venezuelan Henry Velandia, he is fighting to save his husband from being deported. Had the couple been straight and not gay, Vandiver would have been allowed to apply for permanent residence status for Velandia, who could then later apply for citizenship. But their dream to build a life together is been derailed by the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between a man and a woman under all federal laws, including immigration.

Mind you, the President decided to ignore a federal law requiring him to kick out the not-yet-American-citizen spouses of deceased Americans. They get to stay. But gay spouses? No such empathy from the Obama administration and the apologists. Suddenly it’s all “we simply MUST obey the rule of law.”

No they mustn’t. And no they haven’t. They simply pull out this excuse when it’s time to bash the gays.