What, you mean we were seen as a danger to the government by Dear Leader’s peeps!? Get me a fainting couch…(Wash Blade):
Applicants for Justice Department internships and honors programs may have been rejected based on their membership in LGBT groups during the Bush administration, the Blade has learned.Numerous applicants were denied entry to the department’s Honors Program and the summer intern program starting in 2006 because of their previous work in what were deemed to be liberal organizations, according to an internal Justice Department report issued last year. The practice occurred while Attorney General Alberto Gonzales led the department.
…”The findings of this Department of Justice investigation are disturbing,” said Sean Cahill, a Gay Men’s Health Crisis director. “If anything, the opportunities for interns to work on immigration law at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and provide legal services to immigrants living with HIV, makes one more qualified, not less, to serve in the Department of Justice.”
Also on the sh*t list were any people affiliated with immigration issues — that means two-for-two for Immigration Equality!
“While few gay rights groups are included on the DOJ’s blacklist, immigrant advocacy groups make up 25 percent of the list,” she said. “The rights of non-citizens are the canary in our constitutional coal mine, and LGBT people, both immigrants and non-immigrants, know that immigrant rights must be zealously defended for everyone’s sake.”…Rachel Tiven, Immigration Equality’s executive director, said in a statement that her organization was “proud to be the only national LGBT organization included in the Bush Justice Department’s list of dangerous organizations” and that “opponents of equality and justice are right to fear us.”
Not surprisingly, 82% of folks with ties to liberal orgs had their resumes hit the circular file while only 13% of people with conservative backgrounds were crossed off the list.



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But those who were graduatesof the fourth tier Regent University Law School were welcomed with open arms.
From a WaPo story, Justice’s Holy Hires April 8, 2007:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
For an administration who regularly used Pro-Choice as their litmus test for ANY appointmentThem using immigrant advocacy and sexual orientation comes as no suprise. My guess is they’d use closeted Mehlman and Rove’s and Mary Cheney gay-dar to weed out anyone slightly suspected.
Actually, Immigration Equality is a big threatto DOMA.
Hopefully the UAFA will be included in the up and coming Senate Comprehesive Immigration Reform due out by Labor Day. By fighting for individual federal rights, we chip away at DOMA. Is it any wonder why Sen. Sessions brought up DOMA at the UAFA Senate hearings last month? With the Mass. AG challenging Sect. 3 DOMA and piecemeal federal rights legislation like the UAFA, DOMA is quickly falling apart.
It is for this reason that the LGBT community must take a stand for an inclusive Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
Interestingly, I think I was one of the people blackballed…I was at a great law school and had really good grades my 1L year. I applied to the DOJ summer internship program at various divisions (not strictly the Honors Program but similar). Turned down by everyone except Tax, who called me long after I had already found a different summer job.
The offers I got outside of the government were really good — much more competitive than the DOJ, supposedly — but my resume had some liberal orgs on it.
(Don’t feel sorry for me, obv — I actually did much better in terms of my personal preferences than the DOJ job, so no harm done — but it’s interesting that I was quite likely personally affected by such a high-profile story.)