Raben Policy Breakfast with Pelosi Senior Counsel, Joe Onek

We'd be delighted if you'd join us for The Raben Group's policy breakfast with Joe Onek, senior counsel to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Mr. Onek served as an attorney and then director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), as senior counsel and director of the Liberty and Security Initiative at the Constitution Project and as senior policy analyst and special counsel at the Open Society Institute.  Mr. Onek was also a partner in two Washington D.C. law firms, where he specialized in health care and constitutional law.  He is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and chairman of the board of CLASP.

This policy breakfast is not a fundraiser and space is limited, so please let us know immediately if you plan to attend by emailing Rosa Mendoza at rmendoza@rabengroup.com or calling 2020in

Location: Home of Robert Raben - One block from Union Station

Women's History Month Event!

Marshall Center Auditorium
Main State (HST Building)
21st  St entrance, NW, Washington, DC

Please RSVP to Kelly Keiderling at  keiderlingka@state.gov or 202-647-5715  by March 16

I am really glad that I had the opportunity to go to the Creating Change conference.  I'm grateful for the immediate support I received from post in allowing and funding my travel there.  It was an interesting conference for me for several reasons.  For one, it was a great opportunity to be exposed to life in the United States again outside of my home region.  For another, it was very interesting to see such a widespread grassroots operation from all walks of life and all corners of the country.  I was impressed with the number of young people involved, but also older people with limited incomes who felt it important enough to go and be part of the movement. 

Immigration was a major theme of this year's conference, which was encouraging for me to see since that is a major issue for me personally and GLIFAA in general.  To that end, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force arranged for Thomas Saenz, President of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) to be a keynote speaker at the opening plenary session.  Obviously his goals have more to do with immigration reform as it relates to his Latino base, but he is aggressively pushing for GLBT issues as part of a comprehensive immigration reform effort. 

What I found most interesting was the discussions and workshops on legal reform initiatives, be they the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, marriage equality, or the Uniting American Families Act.  It was very useful to understand their current status, the obstacles that such legislation faces, the work that is being done to move them forward, and most of all, the strategies that are being used for gaining passage.  For example, even if there is adequate support in principle for passing various individual pieces of legislation, for the most part this is still being upheld so that it can be passed in an omnibus law (hence the usefulness of having MALDEF as an ally). 

Overall, there was a lot of optimism and feeling of progress despite recent legislative setbacks on marriage equality in places like Maine, New York and New Jersey.  The feeling is that these are battles lost, but that the overall war is still going well, and victory is inevitable.  This was a very uplifting message to hear. 

I felt a little out of place at first, since I was probably the only one who came from overseas to attend, and didn't know anybody there.  But contacts developed through my GLIFAA network gave me an in with some great people, and I wound up having a good time.  I definitely recommend it for any GLIFAA members who are contemplating attending in future years!