New Life For Full DOMA Repeal

Via press release from Freedom To Marry:

Today Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) reintroduced the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and ensure that the federal government respects all valid marriages across all agencies. The bill has 42 original cosponsors in the Senate, including every returning Senator to the 114th Congress who supported the bill in the past; and 78 cosponsors in the House.

“The U.S. Supreme Court took a crucial step in dismantling the so-called Defense of Marriage Act last year, and the administration has implemented the ruling forcefully, but the job is not yet complete,” said Jo Deutsch, federal director of Freedom to Marry. “The Respect for Marriage Act seeks to fix major gaps in federal protections for married couples, especially in social security and veterans’ benefits. We must keep working to end every vestige of federal marriage discrimination and send this mean-spirited law to the dustbin of history.”

The reintroduction in the Senate includes two new cosponsors: incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI). The House bill has bipartisan support, while all of the cosponsors in the Senate are Democrats.

Legally married same-sex couples continue to suffer discrimination in the areas of Social Security and veterans’ benefits, which are determined by federal law based on whether the state in which they reside respects the marriage. If a same-sex couple is legally married but lives in or moves to a state that doesn’t respect the marriage, they cannot share in these programs. The Respect for Marriage Act fixes this inequity with a provision that requires the federal government to respect all legal marriages for the purposes of all federal programs.

This is the fourth attempt for the bill, which was first introduced by Nadler in 2009.

Liberty Counsel Head Mat Staver: Refusing Jewish Customers Is Bad But Turning Away Gays Is OK Because Jesus

Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver today testified before a US House committee hearing on "religious liberty," where he told Rep. Jerry Nadler that it should be illegal to refuse to serve Jewish customers, but that businesses should be free to discriminate against gays.

83 Members Of Congress Petition John Kerry To Protect Gay Athletes At Olympics

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) has written a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry which demands protections for LGBT athletes at the Sochi Olympics. The letter was co-signed by 83 members of the U.S. House.  The letter closes:

We applaud the State Department’s commitment to ensuring that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons abroad, and the actions your agency has already taken to communicate concerns about the overall direction on LGBT rights in Russia directly to the Russian government. In light of the importance of U.S. leadership on LGBT issues, and the quickly-approaching Sochi Games, we urge the State Department to determine the appropriate course of action to assure the safety and well being of LGBT and LGBT— supporting individuals involved in or attending the 2014 Sochi Olympics and Paralympics. We look forward to hearing from you regarding what efforts have been undertaken, especially efforts undertaken in coordination with other foreign governments, and are committed to working together with you on this issue.

The full list of names on the letter is here.

RELATED: Despite claims to the contrary by the IOC, last week Russian officials said that both athletes and attendees of the Sochi Olympics will indeed to be subject to arrest under Russia's "homosexual propaganda" ban.

Nadler: Weiner Needs Psychiatric Help

"I think he should withdraw, I think he needs serious psychiatric help. He should take care of his own problems and let New York figure its policies and its mayor. I mean, to have done it again after what we went through in the resignation, he has shown himself to be a serial liar. You can't believe him, and he's also shown monumentally bad judgment. How can you trust his judgment as a mayor? I think that the problems that Anthony Weiner — like Eliot Spitzer — exhibited while in office, and after, pose fundamental problems to the serious governance of New York. They both exhibit a fundamental dishonesty, they both lied repeatedly, and show monumental errors of judgment." - Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), speaking yesterday at a press conference.

Dems Move On DOMA Section Two

Yesterday House and Senate Democrats wasted no time in announcing their plan to overturn the remaining portion of DOMA by reintroducing the Respect For Marriage Act.

The Supreme Court Wednesday threw out just one section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn) wants to strike the law's death blow. Nadler and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) celebrated Wednesday's historic Supreme Court decision by introducing legislation that would repeal the rest of the law. They're targeting a particular provision that spares states from recognizing gay marriages conducted legally elsewhere in the country. The new bill would also standardize the federal government's handling of same-sex marriage across programs, they said."We salute today's ruling," Nadler said in a release.

Nadler's bill, needless to say, has little chance of passage in the GOP-dominated House.

RELATED: Rep. Nadler, who has appeared at virtually every LGBT-related event I've attended in the last couple of years, was at Edith Windsor's side yesterday in the West Village.

Homeland Security Issues Written Guidelines On Delaying LGBT Deportations

Immigration Equality is thrilled:

Immigration Equality today praised the Obama Administration, and specifically the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for new, written guidance that will extend discretionary relief to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) immigrants with U.S. citizen spouses and partners. The new written directive, which was announced in response to a Congressional letter spearheaded by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), marks one of the very first times LGBT families have been recognized within federal immigration policies. The guidelines, which are expected to be distributed soon to field offices across the country, will instruct officers and field agents to recognize LGBT families for purposes of relief as defined by a June 2011 memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton.

Rep. Jerry Nadler reacts via press release:

“I am thrilled that the Obama Administration has taken to heart my concern about the need to explicitly protect LGBT immigrant families from being torn apart by needless and unwarranted immigration enforcement actions. I thank Secretary Napolitano for listening and supporting a policy that protects all American families, both straight and LGBT. With the written guidelines that I requested and which will be issued by ICE, federal immigration officials will finally have the clear direction they need to make responsible and compassionate decisions on family ties in immigration cases.”

UPDATE: The Washington Blade has posted Secretary Napolitano's letter to Nadler.

NYC's U.S. House Members: It Gets Better

Clip description:

Members of New York City's Congressional Delegation -- Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Ed Towns, Eliot Engel, Carolyn Maloney, Joe Crowley and Jose Serrano -- released a video to combat the scourge of suicide among LGBT American youths. They join thousands of others across the country working to help those who are at risk. The It Gets Better Project was created in 2010 to address the alarming increase of reported suicide among LGBT youths.

NYC House members except the Republicans.

Boehner Triples DOMA Legal Budget

House Speaker John Boenher has tripled the allocation to defend DOMA to a possible $1.5M.

A modified contract between the General Counsel to the House of Representatives and former Solicitor General Paul Clement of Bancroft PLLC sets a cap of $750,000 which can be raised up to $1.5 million. "It is absolutely unconscionable that Speaker Boehner is tripling the cost for his legal boondoggle to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act," Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement. "At a time when Americans are hurting and job creation should be the top priority, it just shows how out of touch House Republicans have become that they would spend up to $1.5 million dollars to defend discrimination in our country," Hammill continued.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler reacts via press release:

“In the current climate of Republican-sponsored deficit hysteria, draconian spending cuts, and an ongoing recession in which Americans are still awaiting congressional leadership on jobs and mortgage relief, it is shocking and supremely hypocritical for Republican Leadership to spend additional taxpayer dollars on the unwarranted, unconstitutional and unnecessary defense of DOMA. It seems that the only jobs program the House is creating is one for high-priced lawyers to defend an unconscionable law.

Freedom To Marry's Evan Wolfson:

“At a time when Americans are struggling through one of the worst economies in our nation's history, it is shameful that House Republicans are now tripling the spending of tax dollars - including those of gay and lesbian Americans - to defend a discriminatory anti-gay law that makes it even harder for committed gay and lesbian couples to take care of and protect their loved ones. The so-called Defense of Marriage Act is indefensible, and wasting tax dollars on perpetuating discrimination is unconscionable.”

Proposed DOMA Repeal Would Force Full Faith And Credit Issue

A proposed repeal of DOMA floated by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) would not include federal rights for couples in domestic partnerships and civil unions, but would force states to recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. The Bay Area Reporter:

Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-New York), in an exclusive interview with the B.A.R. while attending the annual Human Rights Campaign gala in San Francisco Saturday, July 25, ruled out including anything other than legally recognized marriages in the legislation he plans to introduce either this week or once Congress returns from its August recess. "No, it will not include domestic partnerships or civil unions. It is going to be just marriage," said Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and therefore, will be the lead sponsor of legislation aimed at repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Under DOMA's Section 3 the federal government is forbidden from recognizing LGBT couples married in the six states where same-sex marriage is legal. Section 2 of the law says those states that outlaw same-sex marriages do not have to recognize legal same-sex marriages from other states. Nadler said his bill would repeal both sections of DOMA.

Nadler says he won't speculate on the eventual outcome of his bill, but he is sure that "it won't pass this year."