Overwhelming Support for Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act

by Michael Jones · 2009-09-10 10:48:00 UTC
Topics:

Repeal DOMA

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is one of the worst, most discriminatory bills ever written into law.  It's the thirteen-year-old gift that keeps on discriminating against gays and lesbians, denying millions of folks their right to Social Security survivors' benefits, equal treatment under U.S. immigration laws, the right to take leave to care for a spouse, and more.  A time for a repeal of DOMA is now.

Efforts are underway in Congress to introduce a bill calling for a repeal of DOMA, with Rep. Jerry Nadler from New York taking the lead.  Going hand-in-hand with the proposed legislation is an initiative from the Human Rights Campaign -- RepealDOMANow.org -- that hopes to mobilize tens of thousands of letters from folks urging their Congressional Reps to overturn DOMA.  You can take action here to help make that happen.

"Thanks to a string of state-level victories, tens of thousands of loving, same-sex couples across the country have finally been able to join in marriage this year," HRC says on RepealDOMANow.org. "Yet because of DOMA, enacted in 1996, the federal government doesn't recognize a single one."

And they're right.  No matter that marriage equality is the law in places like Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire or Maine (ballot initiative pending).  DOMA means that couples married in these states won't be recognized on the federal level, and won't have access to the more than 1,100 benefits that straight couples receive from the federal government.

That's unfair, unjust, and unconstitutional.  Much like HRC's new Web site says, it's time to Repeal DOMA Now.

(Photo courtesy of stevebott's photostream on Flickr.)

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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