Ellison, McCollum cosponsor repeal of marriage ban
Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 1:39 pm
- 3 Comments
(mccollum.house.gov)
A bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] was introduced in the U.S. House on Tuesday, garnering 92 cosponsors including Minnesota Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum. The bill would direct the federal government to recognize same-sex marriage performed in states where the practice is legal.
For the purposes of any Federal law in which marital status is a factor, an individual shall be considered married if that individual’s marriage is valid in the State where the marriage was entered into or, in the case of a marriage entered into outside any State, if the marriage is valid in the place where entered into and the marriage could have been entered into in a State.
“[DOMA] 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,” said Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese on Tuesday. “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.”
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter3 Comments
Comment posted September 18, 2009 @ 9:31 am
Thank you to both Rep. McCollum and Rep. Ellison for co-sponsoring this importnat civil rights bill. I hope that Rep. Oberstar, who supported DOMA in 1996, will see the error in his past vote and also co-sponsor this bill.
Comment posted September 18, 2009 @ 9:51 am
I will be interested to see how conservatives react to this language. This is a very conservative-like piece of legislation that is strongly supportive of federalism. Irrespective of one’s view of same-sex marriage, this legislation rightly allows states to decide for themselves and clearly puts the responsibility on the individuals to take action to secure marital status. A counter argument conservatives could make is that one’s marriage is valid only if one lives in the state that validated the marriage, but that would seem to fly in the face of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution.This seems like pretty solid legislation at first blush..
I would also argue that if this language became law, the federal government should do away with all federal “domestic partnership” benefits and in federal law invalidate all “domestic partnership” language, However inconvenient, under this legislation it is possible for same-sex couples to enter into a marriage recognized by the federal government. Therefore, granting benefits to unmarried “domestic partners” becomes a special and unnecessary privilege rather than an equal rights issue. It will be interesting to see if liberals make that connection..
Comment posted September 21, 2009 @ 10:30 am
I sent an e-form to Rep. Oberstar urging him to moderate his rather conservative social values by supporting the repeal of DOMA as well as voting for meaningful health care reform that may or may not include abortion provisions despite his well-publicized anti-abortion stance … I urge others in his Congressional district to contact him as well.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
