Franken says repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act won’t make straight people gay, but that DOMA will continue to harm LGBT couples if it isn’t repealed.
The letter argues that passage of the Defense of Marriage Act was a radical departure from the practice of allowing states the right to define marriage.
The Minnesota Catholic Conference has joined arms with Minnesota for Marriage, which supports a constitutional same-sex marriage ban.
Walz joins all his Minnesota DFL colleagues in Congress except U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson in support of the repeal.
At a hearing on the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, Sen. Al Franken took issue with the testimony of Tom Minnery, the head of Focus on the Family’s political arm, CitizenLink. After Minnery cited a government study he said showed that the children of married gay and lesbian couples fared worse than married opposite-sex couples, Franken flatly stated that Minnery was wrong and called into question any further testimony from Minnery.
On Tuesday, two groups called on Sen. Amy Klobuchar to sign on as a cosponsor of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) noting that she is the only Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee who has not taken that step.
Minnesota Democrats introduced a bill on Monday that would repeal the state’s Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex couples from benefiting from the rights and responsibilities of marriage. The bill, the Marriage and Family Protection Act, was offered just as heated debate at the Capitol continues over a proposed constitutional amendment that would write a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar will support a bill that would repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) when it comes up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on which Klobuchar serves, state Sen. Scott Dibble has indicated. DOMA currently prevents same-sex couples legally married in five states, Washington, D.C., and one tribal nation from receiving the federal benefits of marriage. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder decided in February to halt defense of DOMA citing its probable unconstitutionality.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar is one of only two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who have not signed on to a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, and that committee is only two votes away from passing the bill out of committee. Klobuchar and Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl are seen as the two key votes on the committee and both have said they haven’t decided which way they will vote when the bill is taken up in the coming weeks.
Rep. Michele Bachmann is one of 81 cosponsors of a House resolution that would condemn President Obama for his decision to discontinue the federal government’s defense of the Defense of Marriage Act. Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder reached a conclusion that parts of DOMA were unconstitutional and therefore the federal government could no longer defend the act.
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