Quote Of The Day - Rep. Earl Blumenauer

"Let's get real and stop the charade about what a 'social welfare' organization is. Last year, internal National Organization for Marriage (NOM) strategy documents were leaked, stating that the organization seeks 'to drive a wedge between gays and blacks' by promoting "African American spokespeople for marriage,' thus provoking same-sex marriage supporters into 'denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots,' and 'to interrupt the assimilation' of Latinos into 'dominant Anglo culture' by making the stance against same-sex marriage 'a key badge of Latino identity.'

"Does this sound like social welfare to you? Social welfare organizations should work in the public interest -- not to divide, exploit, and conquer. When I brought this up at the hearing today, Dr. Eastman, Chairman of the Board of NOM, angrily groused, 'To say that defending traditional marriage doesn't qualify for defense of the public good is beyond preposterous.'

"To Dr. Eastman, I say that it is the denial of my constituents, and all Americans, the right to marry the person they love is preposterous. To exploit racial and religious differences so you can fundraise for and enforce your specific worldview is preposterous. But your right to be preposterous should not extend to taking political positions under the guise of a social welfare organization, raising money and campaigning." - Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), writing for the Huffington Post.

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.