Idea for Change in America: Repeal DOMA

by Michael Jones · 2008-12-07 10:32:00 UTC
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DOMAImmediately after the election, salon.com columnist Gleen Greenwald said that one way Democrats and marriage equality proponents could respond to the passage of Proposition 8 in California would be to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  As Greenwald points out: 

Democrats have a particular responsibility to erase the stain of DOMA.  It was Bill Clinton who signed DOMA into law.  It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate (85-14) with massive Democratic support, including from Democratic icons such as Paul Wellstone, Chris Dodd, Pat Leahy, Tom Daschle, Patty Murray, Harry Reid, Barbara Mikulski, and the new Vice President-elect, Joe Biden (interestingly, Democrats ranging from Russ Feingold and Dianne Feinstein to Virginia's Chuck Robb and Nebraska's Bob Kerrey voted against it).

I worked for Paul Wellstone's campaign in 2002, and it breaks my heart to see his name on that list.  Paul once said that he regretted his vote on DOMA.  I'd hope that the other folks on this list that are currently serving in the U.S. Senate would feel the same way.  

What does DOMA do?  DOMA defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws, and provides that states need not recognize a marriage from another state if it is between persons of the same sex.  DOMA was also the bullet that launched all of the statewide constitutional amendments on gay marriage that we've seen over the past ten years, from the 1998 vote in Hawaii, to the 2008 votes in Arizona, California, and Florida.  

Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law.  It's time for Barack Obama to sign the repeal of it.  Let's vote this idea up the slate over at change.org's "Ideas for Change in America" and see it happen.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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