Obama Says Banning Gay Marriage Good for the Federal Government?

by Michael Jones · 2009-06-12 09:15:00 UTC
Topics:

Obama

Details are still swirling in over a Department of Justice brief regarding a challenge to bans on same-sex marriage, but it looks like the Obama administration (per America Blog) is weighing in as colossal defenders of the Defense of Marriage Act, going so far as to say that banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget.

Wow, some fierce advocate for LGBT rights you are, President Obama.

John Aravosis at America Blog sums it up this way: "Obama is quite literally destroying our civil rights gains with this brief. He's taking us down for his own benefit."

The brief surrounds a lawsuit stemming from California, where a gay married couple has challenged the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court.  This is a different case than the much-heralded lawsuit filed by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) earlier this year, which also challenges DOMA.

In the Department of Justice brief, the Obama administration makes the claim that DOMA is an appropriate government response to the issue of same-sex marriage, by saying, "DOMA reflects a cautiously limited response to society's still-evolving understanding of the institution of marriage."

Pardon the French, but what a crock of shit coming from the President who was supposed to be all about change, and the President who as early as this month said that much more progress was needed in this country to advance LGBT rights.  I hardly see how the Department of Justice brief on this case constitutes progress.

Oh, but it gets even worse.  In the brief filed by the Obama administration, Obama's Department of Justice argues that DOMA is rational ("[DOMA's] cautious decision simply to maintain the federal status quo while preserving the ability of States to experiment with new definitions of marriage is entirely rational."), and that DOMA is not anti-gay ("Moreover, because DOMA protected "the ability of elected officials to decide matters related to homosexuality," including their right to recognize same-sex marriage, it plainly was not born solely as a result of animosity towards homosexuals.").

I kind of want to throw up right now.  Anyone with me?  Here's the 50+ page brief below.

Obama's Motion to Dismiss Marriage case

Obama's Motion to Dismiss Marriage case JoeSudbay Obama administration's brief in case to dismiss same-sex marriage case.

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.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Banning Gay Marriage Increases HIV Infection
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (101)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.