Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR): Approving DOMA Was The Worst Vote Of My Career

Saying that he thought by approving DOMA, he was helping "take the steam out of the Newt Gingrich-Tom Delay Congress, which was using the homophobic right-wing agenda to mobilize their base at the expense of millions of LGBT Americans," Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) looks back on one of what he calls the "worst vote" of his 13-year Congressional career.

It should have been obvious to me that we would not be able to quell this assault based on sexual orientation. Far from stopping it, this vote fed the bigotry. Once Congress had put its imprimatur on DOMA, it was a logical step for the homophobes and political cynics to intensify their efforts and make permanent a ban on gay marriage in both the U.S. and state constitutions -- spawning many state initiatives and intensifying the assault. As for the expectation that my friends, allies, and supporters within the community would understand my vote, that too was fundamentally flawed. Friends gay and straight were perplexed, confused, and hurt. Logical political calculation -- after all, I'm the "political expert" -- made no sense. First of all, I was fundamentally wrong about how the politics would play out, but it was also flawed on a more basic level. Here I was making political calculations on the basis of other people's civil rights and identity as human beings. The ultimate arrogance in this -- even had my calculations turned out right (which they weren't) -- was just wrong.

Blumenauer is a co-sponsor of Rep. Jerrold Nadler's DOMA-repeal act.