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Justice Dept. will meet next week with gay rights groups on DOMA.

This morning, Greg Sargent reported that the Justice Department had refused to meet with gay rights legal groups to discuss how to move forward on cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act. Now DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Russo confirms to Sargent that the Department has reached out to these groups and will meet with them next week:

The Obama Justice Department has reached out to major gay rights organizations and scheduled a private meeting for next week with the groups, in an apparent effort to smooth over tensions in the wake of the controversy over the administration’s defense in court of the Defense of Marriage Act. […]

At the meeting — which hasn’t been announced and is expected to include leading gay rights groups like GLAD and Lambda Legal — both sides are expected to hash out how to proceed with pending DOMA cases.

The White House also admitted today that it was “seeking ways to include same-sex marriages, unions and partnerships in 2010 Census data.”

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