Progress on Capitol Hill: Renewed Respect for Marriage?

Kudos for bold leaders in the House and Senate who Wednesday threw their political weight behind the aptly-named Respect for Marriage Act, which seeks to repeal the so-called "defense" of marriage act (DOMA). In the House this included U.S. Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Barney Frank (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jared Polis (D-CO), David Cicilline (D-RI), and John Conyers (D-MI), who reintroduced the “Respect for Marriage Act” on Wednesday morning in their effort to repeal DOMA. U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) followed in the afternoon with similar legislation in the Senate.

"It is time to right this wrong," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in introducing the bill with other senators. "This bill will ensure that all married couples in the United States enjoy equal protection of our laws."

Calling DOMA an "injustice that is wrongly enshrined in U.S. law," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) referenced the successful passage of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act and said, "I know we will will prevail for marriage equality, too."

President Obama has stated that DOMA is discriminatory and unfair, and has pledged to work with Congress to overturn it as well as to stop defending it through his Department of Justice. However, House Republican leaders under Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) have initiated their own legal defense of DOMA through the House counsel's office.

Many of us were impressed by the repeal of DADT in Congress back in December. Hopefully members of both houses will see the writing on the wall with this one as well and stand on the right side of justice and history.

The Case That Changed Obama's Mind

Widow Edie Windsor's case is one of two cases pending in federal courts cited in the announcement that Obama will stop defending DOMA.

Edie Windsor is suing for the right to not pay a $363,053 federal tax bill following the death of her long-term partner Thea. She would not have faced this liability had the federal government recognized their union.

To learn more about the couple and their story, watch the movie "Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement"

NC Republicans Propose Constitutional Amendment...Again, With Poor Timing

President Obama and the Department of Justice announced last week that they are abandoning their legal defense of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act DOMA, saying that they believe the statute is unconstitutional.

Their decision to stop defending of DOMA underscores the inherent unconstitutionality of marriage bans in states across the country. Ironically, the same week, NC Sen. James Forrester (R), who has been trying to push a constitutional amendment for nearly a decade, thinks its time to put the ban to the voters in 2012.

At the present moment, 16 states have either same-sex marriage or civil unions, with Maryland in a position to legalize same-sex marriage soon.

North Carolina is the only southern state that has successfully avoided such an amendment, largely due to a Democratically-controlled legislature that did not want to see this go before the voters; up until this year (when Republicans rule both houses for the first time in decades), the bills have stayed tied up in committee.

This year, it could go out of committee and be debated on the floor, but there is a question whether each chamber has the 3/5 vote required, according to NC's only openly gay legislator, Representative Marcus Brandon. According to Brandon and Equality NC's Executive Director Ian Palmquist, the key to this vote is putting pressure on the conservative Democrats. If it does reach both floors, consider this: NC wants businesses to relocate in the state to provide needed jobs, but passing backwards-looking constitutional amendments is not going to help attract forward-thinking businesses. Consider also all the money and time required to pass an amendment that would effectively do nothing. Gay couples married in other states cannot have their marriages recognized in NC due to NC's DOMA. The amendment would only make extra sure that they cannot have what they already don't have. The amendment is fiscally irresponsible.

And this is just a matter of time, anyway. Within the next decade, the US Supreme Court will probably decide the matter for all states. An amendment in NC is too late, redundant, costly, backward-thinking and misguided. In short, it's a waste of time.

Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) was smart enough to see the writing on the wall, demonstrated with his vote to repeat "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in December.