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.

Editorial Of The Day

From the New York Times editorial board:

In Washington, the Obama administration is moving with commendable diligence and speed to extend benefits like health care, life insurance and immigration rights to gay and lesbian married couples. We took special satisfaction from the memo sent out by the chief administrative officer of the Republican-led House informing all 435 representatives and their staff members in all 50 states that they have 60 days to enroll their same-sex spouses for benefits like vision, dental and long-term care insurance and survivors’ annuities.

House Republicans spent millions of taxpayer dollars on private lawyers’ fees to defend the Defense of Marriage Act’s indefensible discrimination when the Obama administration decided it would no longer do so.

Even now, though, there is a serious risk that legally married individuals will lose out on valuable Social Security and veterans’ benefits because language in the applicable statutes seems to determine whether couples are married based on where they live rather than where their marriage was celebrated.

The Justice Department should be exploring every legal route around that, but there should be no need for straining. A newly reintroduced bill would fulfill the letter and spirit of the Defense of Marriage Act ruling by ensuring that the elderly, veterans who risked their lives for their country and others are not excluded from federal benefits even if they live in states where their marriages are not recognized.

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.

HRC Launches New Coalition: Businesses For The Repeal Of DOMA

The Human Rights Campaign today announced a new coalition of corporations that is endorsing the Respect For Marriage Act, which would legislatively repeal DOMA.

The Business Coalition for DOMA Repeal is a group of leading U.S. employers that support legislative efforts to repeal the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act through the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act. These Coalition members recognize that DOMA is bad for business and have pledged their support for RMA, which restores the rights of all lawfully married couples—including same-sex couples – to receive the benefits of marriage under federal law.

Among the first companies to join the coalition are A|X Armani Exchange, Aetna Inc., Biogen Idec, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Diageo North America, eBay, Electronic Arts, Kimpton Hotels, Marriott International, Massachusetts Mutual Life, Replacements, Ltd., Sun Life Financial, and Thomson Reuters.

DOMA Repeal Fight: Act On Principles

A new website called ACT On Principles has been launched for us to continuously monitor in real time our House representative's position on the repeal of DOMA.

The LGBT community is often told that there is not the support needed to pass, or even introduce, certain pieces of legislation. Rarely are we told who needs to be persuaded to gain the needed support. When we are it is usually within days of the vote. And, because of technological constraints, this information is not up to date.

The Public Whip Count fundamentally changes the way advocacy on legislation works. It empowers the grassroots, and any citizen, to possess the knowledge necessary to organize and pressure our elected officials until enough votes are secured to introduce or pass legislation. It replaces secrecy with transparency and accountability and allows anyone who cares about LGBT equality to become an activist for full legal equality.

The most revolutionary aspect of our Public Whip Count tool is that it shares power with national organizations, the grassroots, elected officials and party leaders and allows real-time updates.

Bookmark this site. Note your rep's position and his/her direct phone number. This is doable.

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.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler's DOMA Repeal Bill Filed in U.S. House With 91 Co-Sponsors

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today filed his DOMA repeal bill, the "Respect For Marriage Act," in the U.S. House with 91 co-sponsors.

“Today, we celebrate the first step toward overturning the Defense of Marriage Act and sending that ugly law into the history books where it belongs," said Nadler, adding that the new RMA bill has 91 original cosponsors. Nadler later read a statement from former President Bill Clinton thanking Reps. Nadler, Baldwin, Polis, John Conyers of Michigan, John Lewis of Georgia, Nydia Velazquez of New York and Barbara Lee of California, for introducing the legislation. Clinton signed DOMA into law in 1996. “Throughout my life I have opposed discrimination of any kind," Clinton said in the statement. "When the Defense of Marriage Act was passed, gay couples could not marry anywhere in the United States or the world for that matter. Thirteen years later, the fabric of our country has changed, and so should this policy.” The bill would repeal all three sections of DOMA -- which federally defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman -- including section one, which is the name; section two, which instructs states not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states; and section three, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing legally performed same-sex marriages.

Major LGBT rights organizations react below.

Lambda Legal:

"It is long past time for DOMA to go," said Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director of Lambda Legal. "When DOMA passed in 1996 it was a gratuitous slap in the face. But now, 13 years later, there are thousands of married same-sex couples who are hurt by this law. We've come a long way in 13 years and the federal government shouldn't be in the business of deciding that some married couples are worthy of federal respect and others are not. Married same-sex couples pay federal taxes just like everyone else and have a right to the same respect, important benefits and protections as everyone else."

National Gay & Lesbian Task Force:

We thank Reps. Nadler, Baldwin, Polis, Lewis and Velazquez for introducing this bill to dismantle one of the most discriminatory and far-reaching laws to emerge against our community: the so-called 'Defense of Marriage Act.' "DOMA is and has always been an immoral attack on same-sex couples, our families and our fundamental humanity. This hateful law has only served to discriminate against people and belittle our country's heralded values of freedom, fairness and justice. It is long past time to repeal DOMA, which has left a moral scar on this country. Today marks an important step toward closing an ugly chapter in our nation's history, and for working to ensure same-sex couples and our families are treated fairly. Too many families have been hurt for far too long because of DOMA. "We at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, along with people all across the country — from every town and every background — recognize that our entire nation benefits when everyone is allowed to contribute their talents and skills, free from discrimination. That's why we are urging for passage of the 'Respect for Marriage Act.'"

Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders:

Our view is that every branch of government should be engaged in the process of getting rid of this discriminatory law. Every day we see the damage DOMA causes families in the states, denying them access to the federal safety net, penalizing them financially, and rendering them second-class. We need to engage all levels of government in ending this discrimination.

Human Rights Campaign:

“The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a hurtful and cynical law enacted to discriminate against loving, committed same-sex couples,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese, who also offered remarks at the introduction press conference. “It does real harm by denying thousands of lawfully-married same-sex couples the federal rights and benefits that only flow through marriage. Many of these include the protections couples turn to in times of need, like Social Security survivors’ benefits, medical leave to care for an ailing spouse and equal treatment under U.S. immigration laws. Today’s introduction of legislation to repeal DOMA is a welcome step, and as more states recognize the commitment of loving same-sex couples and their families, it's time for this law to go into the history books where it belongs.”