While he wishes the Obama administration would stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, former Obama deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand said he doesn’t expect Congress will ever willingly repeal it.

“I don’t foresee in my lifetime Congress having the guts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. We can’t even get workplace protections passed. How do we expect them to take on religious institutions in this country who hold marriage [as an institution] only allowed between a man and a woman?” Hildebrand told Kerry Eleveld, who interviewed him for the Advocate at the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas this week.

Hildebrand was hailed for his role in helping President Obama win Florida in the 2008 election, but relations between the strategist and the White House hit a rough patch after some accused Obama of slow-walking legislative action on key LGBT issues such as ENDA and the repeal of the military ban on gay troops.

But Wednesday at a gathering of LGBT bloggers and activists before the Netroots Nation kickoff, Hildebrand was given the opportunity to explain why he was involved with the group in just three words.

“Don’t hate Obama,” answered Hildebrand.  ”This is a guy who isn’t going to do things exactly the way you want him to do, but know that his heart is in the right place. He has his priorities, they’re in line with our priorities and he’s going to do them at his pace,” Hildebrand said, expanding on his answer.

Last night at the White House President Barack Obama told invited guests at a LGBT Pride celebration that he would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them as they continued their fight for equality for LGBT Americans.

“This struggle is as old as America itself.  It has never been easy.  But standing here, I am hopeful,” Obama said.

Obama ticked off a number of accomplishments, including the enactment of federal hate crimes laws and the decision to require hospitals to allow same-sex partners the same visitation rights as straight partners.  The HHS Secretary yesterday sent a letter to hospitals asking them to implement that policy ahead of new regulations.

The president also repeated his promise to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but said the only way to do it was to work with the Pentagon.

Obama paid particular tribute to young activists in the audience.  ”Many of the young people here today have shown incredible courage and incredible integrity…it’s not easy standing up all the time and being who you are.  They’re showing us the way forward.”

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act will soon give some gay workers the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for the sick or newborn children of their same-sex partners, according to sources who spoke to the New York Times:

The policy will be set forth in a ruling to be issued Wednesday by the Labor Department’s wage and hour division, the officials said.

Under a 1993 law, people who work for a company with 50 or more employees are generally entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or for a spouse, son or daughter with “a serious health condition.”

The new ruling indicates that an employee in a same-sex relationship can qualify for leave to care for the child of his or her partner, even if the worker has not legally adopted the child.

The ruling, in a formal opinion letter, tackles a question not explicitly addressed in the 1993 law. It is one of many actions taken by the Obama administration to respond to the concerns of gay men and lesbians within the constraints of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman as husband and wife.

In April, Mr. Obama announced plans to grant hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners, and the Justice Department concluded that the Violence Against Women Act protects same-sex partners.

On Tuesday, Mr. Obama plans to welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocates to a White House reception celebrating June as “LGBT Pride Month.”

Photo: Zizzybaloobah

Gay and lesbian federal employees will be able to take leave to attend to their sick or deceased partners under a new policy set to go into effect July 14, according to the Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe.

The policy extends family leave to relationships including same-sex partners, opposite-sex partners, stepparents, stepchildren, grandparents and grandchildren.

The Obama administration has been adjusting a number of federal policies it controls in order to extend new rights and benefits to LGBT Americans without having to go through Congress.  Numerous LGBT-specific bills are pending in Congress, but few are expected to be enacted this year.

President Obama has already appointed more openly LGBT staffers to his administration than the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton combined, according to Shin Inouye, director of specialty media in the White House communications office.

Inouye made the observation at a panel discussion about LGBT presidential appointees held last night at the National Press Club in Washington.  The discussion was sponsored by the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association and the Washington Blade.

Other appointees on the panel included  Elaine Kaplan (pictured), General Counsel at the Office of Personnel Management, and Matt Nosanchuk, Senior Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

Kaplan, who also worked in the Clinton administration, noted a different atmosphere for LGBT appointees under President Obama.  ”There are a lot more of us and at higher levels,” Kaplan said.  Inouye and Nosanchuck agreed LGBT staff were fully integrated into the administration at all levels, and that their presence meant that policy decisions more often take into account the possible affects on LGBT people and their families.

Nosanchuk pointed out that many out appointees came to the attention of administration officials through the LGBT community’s Presidential Appointments Project, a coalition effort of some 16 national LGBT groups that’s coordinated by the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute.

“This has always been the point of the Project–to make sure LGBT voices and perspectives are heard at the highest levels of the U.S. government,” said George Walker, a vice president at  GLLI.

Samir Luther recently joined the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute as the Project’s director.