Feldblum: What about ‘nonsexual domestic partners’?

By WND Staff


Chai Feldblum

Just as it supports traditional marriage, the government has an obligation to recognize and support a daughter caring for a mother, siblings living together, or older men or women retiring together, argues President Obama’s nominee to become commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Chai Feldblum, Obama’s nominee, explained: “There are numerous intimate social arrangements that exist today among individuals for purposes of support and connection which include no sex at all. I call these individuals ‘nonsexual domestic partners’ (NSDPs).”

“The same moral duty that requires the state to support marriage relationships and non-marital sexual relationships should be extended to support NSDPs,” Feldblum wrote.

Feldblum, an outspoken homosexual rights activist and Georgetown law professor, set forth her argument in a legal paper she authored titled, “Gay is good: The moral case for marriage equality and more.”

The paper – obtained and reviewed by WND – was prepared for the Moral Values Project, a Georgetown-based group seeking to create a consensus for so-called progressive moral values regarding sexuality, sexual orientation and gender.

In her paper, Feldblum expounded on her definition of “nonsexual domestic partners”:

“A NSDP can be a daughter caring for a mother, two sisters living together, or four older women retiring together. What these relationships share is intimacy, but it is not the type of intimacy arrived at or maintained through sex.”

She used herself as an example, revealing, “I am in a NSDP with three other women.”

Continued Feldblum: “One of the women is raising a child as a single parent and the rest of us help with childcare as necessary. We take each other to the doctor; we take each other to the airport; we leave work early when someone needs help. There is no sexual relationship among the four of us, but there is an explicit and acknowledged commitment to care among the four of us.”

Feldblum lamented “NSDPs exist everywhere and are recognized almost nowhere.” She argued the government has a moral duty same moral duty to support her “NSDPs” with the same obligation that requires the state to support marriage.

“NSDPs should determine their own level of interdependence; the state should provide the logistical support that would reflect that level of interdependence,” she continued.

“The state has an obligation to recognize and support these non-sexual domestic partnerships – these ‘moral units’ of society – as well as sexual relationships that offer care and support,” she continued.

Obama two weeks ago announced his intention to nominate Feldblum for commissioner of the EEOC. She previously served as legislative counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, who famously authored the controversial Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion.

Feldblum is not shy about her ideas for “revolutionizing” America’s workplace and the country’s social values.

She is co-director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, which she described at a 2001 UCLA symposium as a homosexual rights group aimed at “[changing] the American workplace and revolutioniz[ing] social mores.”

“This is a war that needs to be fought and it’s not a war overseas where we are killing people in the name of liberating them. It is a war right here at home where we need to convince people that morality demands full equality for gay people,” she said at that symposium.

Feldblum did not return a WND request for comment left with a receptionist at her Georgetown office.