Even the Author of DOMA Thinks It's Bad Policy

How do you know when something is a bad law?  Well, one way could be that the author of the law in question thinks it's a dumb idea.  Case in point, Bob Barr, the former Georgia Congressman, former Libertarian candidate for President, and now current champion of repealing DOMA - the Defense of Marriage Act.

Barr wrote the text of DOMA as a freshman Congressman in 1996.  The Act soared through passage in a then-Republican controlled Congress, and President Bill Clinton signed the bill in the run-up to his re-election campaign that year.  The Act is a giant swath of legalese, but here's the topic sentence: "In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife."

But now, in a complete 180 from twelve years ago, Barr thinks it's time for DOMA to get the boot.  Per an op-ed piece that Barr has in this morning's LA Times:

I’ve wrestled with this issue for the last several years and come to the conclusion that DOMA is not working out as planned. In testifying before Congress against a federal marriage amendment, and more recently while making my case to skeptical Libertarians as to why I was worthy of their support as their party’s presidential nominee, I have concluded that DOMA is neither meeting the principles of federalism it was supposed to, nor is its impact limited to federal law...

...Moreover, the heterosexual definition of marriage for purposes of federal laws – including, immigration, Social Security survivor rights and veteran’s benefits – has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions.

That's a pretty big turn-around for someone who once thought same-sex unions were a threat to the family and "traditional" marriage.

Here's what's interesting.  On some level, LGBT rights advocates can take some comfort in the fact that people like Bob Barr are saying that DOMA is bad policy.  But using Barr's definition of federalism as a reason for repealing DOMA has its consequences, because it means that if nothing should be done on a federal level to limit marriage rights for LGBT couples, then nothing should be done on a federal level to ensure marriage equality, too.  And that's a slippery slope, IMHO.

No matter where you fall on this spectrum, check out change.org's Ideas section right now.  Because over there you can vote for two ideas that tie into this post quite nicely.  You can vote for Women's Rights blogger Jen Nedeau's idea, "Pass Marriage Equality Rights for LGBT Couples Nationwide," or you can vote for self-described IT Nerd Michael Fustolo's idea, "Repeal DOMA." Or, you can do like I'm doing, and vote for both.