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Written by Lisa Neff, Staff writer
Jul 28, 2011
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on July 20 held a first hearing on Democratic legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and return the federal government to its historic role of deferring to states on marriage.
The hearing was on the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation sponsored by Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in the Senate and Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., in the House. The bill’s first lines make clear the intent: “A bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and ensure respect for state regulation of marriage.”
DOMA was signed into law in 1996 by then-President Bill Clinton, who was seeking re-election and dealing with a hostile, Republican-dominated Congress.
DOMA contains two primary provisions. One provision requires the federal government to withhold recognition of same-sex marriages, which are now legal in six states and the District of Columbia. Under DOMA, gay and lesbian couples in those states are denied more than 1,100 federal rights and benefits available to straight couples. A second provision allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages legalized in other states.
The Obama administration announced earlier this year that it will adhere to DOMA, but it will not defend the federal denial of benefits in court.
On July 19, the president endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act and DOMA’s legislative demise.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, a co-sponsor of the repeal bill, said Obama’s endorsement was another “historic signal that momentum is growing to end the era of DOMA.”
He and Feinstein were among the 14 Democratic senators to vote against DOMA in 1996.
“I’m proud that I voted against it then, and determined now to end the discrimination it enshrined in our laws,” Kerry said. “The Respect for Marriage Act provides long-awaited federal protection and benefits to married gay and lesbian couples.”
The Judiciary Committee heard testimony from proponents and opponents of DOMA’s repeal, including activists and lawyers, policymakers and parents.
Representatives from several right-wing groups – including Focus on the Family, Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Alliance Defense Fund – took up DOMA’s defense.
Representatives from a number of civil liberties and LGBT rights groups – including the Human Rights Campaign, ACLU and Freedom to Marry – testified before the committee for repeal.
“DOMA stigmatizes people by dividing those married at the state level into first-class marriages and second-class marriages for those the federal government doesn’t like,” testified Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry. “But in America, we don’t have second-class citizens, and we shouldn’t have second-class marriages either.”
In the mid-1990s, Wolfson represented same-sex couples seeking the right to marry in Hawaii. Conservative, irrational fears that the Aloha state was about to legalize gay marriage fueled the drive for DOMA, he said.
Congress, Wolfson said, “did not wait to consider evidence or undertake serious analysis before rushing to add a new layer of marriage discrimination against couples already barred from marrying. In floor debate, members repeatedly voiced disapproval of homosexuality, calling it ‘immoral,’ ‘depraved,’ ‘unnatural,’ ‘based on perversion’ and an ‘attack on God’s principles.’”
The committee also heard from Ron Wallen, who married Tom Carrollo, his partner of 58 years, in California before voters passed Proposition 8 and brought such marriages to a halt in the state. Carrollo died in March and, because of DOMA, Wallen cannot receive his Social Security survivor benefits, nor can he afford to keep the home he shared with his partner.
“Tom and I played by the rules, as we pursued our own version of the American dream,” Wallen testified. “We served our country; we paid our taxes; we volunteered; we maintained our home, and got married as soon as we were legally able to do so.
“And yet, as I face a future without my spouse, it is hard to accept that it is the federal government that is throwing me out of my family home. Congress can fix this problem by repealing DOMA. It’s a discriminatory law against gay and lesbian couples who have assumed all the responsibilities of marriage. All we ask is to be treated fairly, just like other loving and committed married couples. I beg you to repeal this law.”
New polling on marriage found that 53 percent of U.S. adults believe that a same-sex marriage from one state should be recognized in another state. The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive, also found that 49 percent “support the right for same-sex couples to marry.”
A May Gallup poll found that 53 percent of Americans supported full marriage equality.
