President Barack Obama signed a memorandum Wednesday granting benefits to same-sex domestic partners of gay and lesbian federal employees.

Domestic partners of federal employees can now be added to the federal government's long-term care insurance program under Obama's memo. Gay and lesbian federal employees will be allowed to use sick leave to care for their domestic partners and their nonbiological, nonadopted children.

The memo also outlines benefits for partners of State Department Foreign Service officers. Those partners will, for the first time, be able to use medical facilities at posts abroad, be medically evacuated, and be counted as part of the diplomat's family when State determines housing allocations.

The memo does not give same-sex domestic partners health or retirement benefits. In a conference call with reporters, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry said the Defense of Marriage Act prevents the government from extending those benefits to employees' partners. The White House supports a bill before Congress, sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., that would work around the Defense of Marriage Act and grant those benefits to employees' domestic partners.

"This is a first step, not a final step," Berry said. "It's an attempt to get our federal house in order. The gay community, of which I'm a member, can be proud that the president stands 100 percent with us."

Berry said OPM will also issue guidance in 90 days outlawing discrimination in the federal government against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender employees.

"A bedrock principle of federal civil service is that the employer doesn't make decisions based on anything other than the individual's ability to do the job," Berry said. "That's why it's called merit-based civil service.

Leonard Hirsch, president of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender federal employee advocacy group Federal GLOBE, applauded the White House's action and said he hopes action on health and retirement benefits will follow.

"It is breaking a logjam," Hirsch said.

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