Both testified that DOMA hurts same-sex couples who are legally married in several states. Franken told his colleagues that repealing the law would have not consequences for heterosexual couples, and that allowing same-sex marriage won’t make anyone gay.

The repeal effort passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 10-8. It still needs to pass a full vote on the Senate floor and faces opposition in the Republican-controlled House, although Minnesota Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Tim Walz are supporters of the House version.

Klobuchar said she was “struck” by the number of people who testified against DOMA in hearings last summer.

“They were discriminated against and unfairly harmed,” Klobuchar said. “They were denied protections like the ability to take off work to care for a dying partner and denied survivor benefits when a partner died.”

Klobuchar also said the issue wasn’t about religion.

“Whatever we vote on today and whatever happens today, the bill doesn’t require any church or mosque or synagogue to perform same-sex marriage. As the debate on this continues, we cannot lose sight of that,” she said.

Franken took issue with a statement by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who argued that marriage has always been defined as the union of one man and one woman. Franken argued that was false.

“In many cultures, men have been able to marry many women and young girls. For centuries, women have been treated as cattle in marriage. Further, if the religious purpose for marriage is procreation, why would we sanction marriage between an 89-year-old widower and an 80-year-old widow?” Franken said. “I just think we need to be accurate when we talk about the history of marriage, the history of man and woman, the history of our institutions.”

Franken spoke about couples in Minnesota who have been harmed by DOMA including a young couple who met in divinity school and married in Connecticut who have to lie on their federal tax forms and say they are single.

He talked about another Minnesota couple that married in Iowa, John and Jeff Westerfield. John was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

“Jeff won’t have the federal right to take a medical leave. If John passes, Jeff won’t see a dime from Social Security,” said Franken. “DOMA hurts people who love each other. DOMA hurts people who want to adopt kids and raise them and take care of them. DOMA hurts families.

“We need to pass this bill. Straight people aren’t suddenly going to become gay, Straight people aren’t going to stop getting married. We are going to be just fine. Really.”

The bill, dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act, passed the committee on a party-line vote.

Source: donsutherland1, Flickr

Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Tim Walz joined 130 other members of Congress in filing a brief in a court case challenging part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The members are challenging Section 3 of DOMA that denies benefits to some legally married couples in Massachusetts that others are afforded and the members say it compromises states’ rights.

The lawsuit began in 2009, when the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed suit on behalf of eight legally married same-sex couples and three surviving spouses after they were denied federal legal protections.

133 House members added their support for the couples’ lawsuit.

“Some [House members] voted against the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) while others voted for it; still others were not in Congress when DOMA was enacted. But all believe, today, that Section 3 of DOMA, which defines marriage for all federal purposes as ‘only a legal union between one man and one woman,’ lacks a rational relationship to any legitimate federal purpose and accordingly is unconstitutional,” the brief said.

Fourteen of the 133 House members signing the brief voted for the original law that they now view as unconstitutional. The only member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation to have voted for DOMA in 1996 is Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, who has said he continues to support the law and voted to “reaffirm” it earlier this year.

Walz, Ellison, and McCollum have all been elected to Congress well after that vote. All three have also sponsored legislation to repeal DOMA.

The brief said, in part, that it was a response to House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to expend federal time and money on the Defense of Marriage Act.

“[The members] also wish to make clear that the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (“BLAG”), which has intervened in this case to defend Section 3’s constitutionality, does not speak for a unanimous House on this issue.”

The brief concluded that DOMA was a federal overreach into the individual states’ rights to determine marriage.

“Prior to DOMA, Congress achieved its legitimate federal interests in promoting the welfare of American families by working cooperatively with the states and respecting state marriage determinations. Congress’s radical departure from that federalist practice was a mistake; because Section 3 violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, it is also unconstitutional. The decision below should be affirmed.”

The case is being heard in the First Circuit’s U.S. Court of Appeals.

Here’s the full list of members who signed the brief:

Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, James E. Clyburn, Jerrold Nadler, John Conyers, Jr., Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Jared Polis, David N. Cicilline, Gary L. Ackerman, Robert E. Andrews, Karen Bass, Xavier Becerra, Shelley Berkley, Howard L. Berman, Timothy H. Bishop, Earl Blumenauer, Robert A. Brady, Bruce L. Braley, Lois Capps, Michael E. Capuano, André Carson, Judy Chu, Hansen Clarke, Yvette D. Clarke, Wm. Lacy Clay, Emanuel Cleaver, Steve Cohen, Gerald E. Connolly, Joe Courtney, Joseph Crowley, Danny K. Davis, Susan A. Davis, Diana DeGette, Rosa L. DeLauro, Theodore E. Deutch, Lloyd Doggett, Michael F. Doyle, Donna F. Edwards, Keith Ellison, Eliot L. Engel, Anna G. Eshoo, Sam Farr, Chaka Fattah, Bob Filner, Marcia L. Fudge, John Garamendi, Charles A. Gonzalez, Raúl M. Grijalva, Luis V. Gutierrez, Janice Hahn, Colleen W. Hanabusa, Alcee L. Hastings, Martin Heinrich, Brian Higgins, James A. Himes, Maurice D. Hinchey, Mazie K. Hirono, Kathy Hochul, Rush D. Holt, Michael M. Honda, Jay Inslee, Steve Israel, Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Sheila Jackson Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., William R. Keating, Dennis J. Kucinich, John B. Larson, Barbara Lee, Sander M. Levin, John Lewis, Zoe Lofgren, Nita M. Lowey, Carolyn B. Maloney, Edward J. Markey, Doris O. Matsui, Carolyn McCarthy, Betty McCollum, Jim McDermott, James P. McGovern, Jerry McNerney, Gregory W. Meeks, Brad Miller, George Miller, Gwen Moore, James P. Moran, Christopher S. Murphy, Grace F. Napolitano, Richard E. Neal, Eleanor Holmes Norton, John W. Olver, William L. Owens, Frank Pallone, Jr., Ed Pastor, Donald M. Payne, Gary C. Peters, Chellie Pingree, David E. Price, Mike Quigley, Charles B. Rangel, Laura Richardson, Steven R. Rothman, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Bobby L. Rush, Tim Ryan, Linda T. Sánchez, Loretta Sanchez, John P. Sarbanes, Janice D. Schakowsky, Adam B. Schiff, Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, José E. Serrano, Brad Sherman, Louise McIntosh Slaughter, Adam Smith, Jackie Speier, Fortney Pete Stark, Mike Thompson, John F. Tierney, Paul Tonko, Edolphus Towns, Niki Tsongas, Chris Van Hollen, Nydia M. Velázquez, Timothy J. Walz, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Maxine Waters, Henry A. Waxman, Peter Welch, Lynn C. Woolsey, John A. Yarmuth.

Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a strongly-worded letter to President Obama this week criticizing Obama’s efforts on gay rights, particularly the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

“I write with a growing sense of urgency about recent actions taken by your Administration that both escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage,” wrote Dolan. “Unfortunately the only response to date has been the intensification of efforts to undermine DOMA and the institution of marriage.”

Specifically, the bishops oppose a decision by Obama not to defend the constitutionality of DOMA in federal courts.

The bishops also noted Obama’s support for foster care and adoption rights for same-sex couples, the implementation of LGBT-themed sensitivity trainings in the some federal departments and proposals to allow legally-married same-sex couples to reside in military housing for married couples.

But, the main thrust of Dolan’s letter was on DOMA.

“The Justice Department’s move, in addition to other troubling federal decisions occurring recently, prompts me yet again to register my grave concerns,” wrote Dolan. “The content of this letter reflects the strong sentiment expressed at a recent meeting by more than thirty of my brother Bishops who serve on the Administrative Committee of our episcopal conference. I know they are joined by hundreds of additional Catholic bishops throughout our nation. My observations are offered in the spirit of respectful, but frank dialogue.”

While the Catholic Church continues to vigorously oppose any relationship rights or recognition for same-sex couples, polling shows that an overwhelming majority of Catholics support either civil unions or same-sex marriage.

The Catholic Church in Minnesota has been very active in opposing rights for same-sex couples. During the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Archbishop John Nienstedt launched a DVD campaign opposing same-sex marriage.

And the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the policy arm of the Catholic Church in Minnesota, has signed on to the Minnesota for Marriage coalition, which is pushing for a constitutional ban on marriage rights for same-sex couples.

On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Walz joined all but one of his Minnesota DFL colleagues in support of a repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents the federal government from recognizing legally married same-sex couples.

The Defense of Marriage Act passed into law in 1996. Walz is the latest lawmaker to sponsor the repeal effort in the House, bringing the number up to 122 representatives. U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York said the bill has been offered every year, but that this year it has gathered the greatest number of sponsors in its history.

Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum are original sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act which was introduced in March. Sen. Al Franken is an original sponsor in the Senate, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined him this summer. Rep. Collin Peterson is the only DFLer in Minnesota’s delegation that hasn’t signed the repeal.

“Getting married to my wife Gwen and building our life together was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Walz said in a statement. “I simply cannot imagine why we would want to ban our fellow Americans from that commitment. Martin Luther King Jr. once said ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ I believe that arc is getting shorter and I look forward to a day in my lifetime when Americans are not discriminated on based on who they love.”

The repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act would ensure that same-sex couples who have been legally married in the United States would have access to federal benefits such as social security, file jointly on tax forms and enjoy less onerous immigration requirements for binational couples.

Same-sex couples can legally mary in Iowa, New York, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, and the sovereign nations of the Coquille and Suquamish. In addition, couples married in California prior to the passing of Proposition 8 in 2008 hold valid marriage licenses in that state.

“As the march toward full equality for LGBT Americans is seeing some real, concrete progress, the movement to repeal DOMA is steadily growing stronger and more robust,” Nadler said of the 122 sponsors. “The coalition working for LGBT rights in the Congress and the nation as a whole is larger than ever before, and we gain new allies every day. And, just this year, New York State enacted marriage equality, hammering one more nail into the coffin of bigotry and discrimination against gays and lesbians. Dumping DOMA is simply not a question of if, but when.”

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.

Franken said, “The Defense of Marriage Act is an injustice. It is an immoral and discriminatory law. Our nation is founded on the premise that all people are created equal, and that’s why I am an original cosponsor of this bill.”

He said, “Repealing DOMA will be a great day in this country, akin to the enacting of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution,” which guaranteed women the right to vote.

Franken addressed Minnery, who had testified that children raised in families with parents of the opposite sex are better off, citing a 2010 Department of Health and Human Services study.

“I checked the study out,” Franken said. “It doesn’t actually say what you said it says. It says ‘nuclear families’ not ‘opposite-sex couples.’”

He continued, “Isn’t it true, Mr. Minnery, that a same-sex couples would fall under the definition of nuclear family?”

Minnery responded, “I would assume it would mean a family with husband and wife.”

“It doesn’t,” Franken said, pausing to allow laughter in the room to subside. “I frankly don’t know how we can trust the rest of your testimony if you are reading studies this way.”

Franken is correct in his reading of the study (PDF). HHS defines a nuclear family as one that consists of “one or more children living with two parents who are married to one another and are each biological or adoptive parents to all children in the family.”

The study doesn’t make a distinction regarding the gender of both partners in a marriage and never mentioned same-sex marriage.

Watch it:

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. Klobuchar has indicated her support for the bill in the past, after some pressure, but OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, and Freedom to Marry, a national group working toward marriage equality, urged her to sign her name to the bill.

“[O]ur US Senator Amy Klobuchar is the only Democrat on the committee who has not signed on as a co-sponsor. The majority of Minnesotans support the freedom to marry. And now it’s time for Senator Klobuchar to take our voices to Washington and call for an end to marriage discrimination,” OutFront Minnesota wrote in a message to members on Tuesday. “She needs to hear from you now. Will you urge Senator Klobuchar to co-sponsor this crucial legislation?”

Minnesota’s Sen. Al Franken was an early sponsor of the bill, the Respect for Marriage Act, which will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning. Backed by President Barack Obama, it would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, passed by Congress in 1996 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

The House version of the bill is sponsored by Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum.

Klobuchar faced pressure in March to state whether or not she would vote for the bill. Her office indicated she would after earlier stating she would not take a position on the bill.

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.

“Marriage is a legal institution recognized by the state to promote stable relationships and to protect people in those relationships and their children,” the bill states. “Minnesota’s current marriage law discriminates against same-sex couples, denying them and their families rights and responsibilities, including the right to pension and Social Security survivor’s benefits, the right to family and medical leave, and numerous other benefits and obligations. The state has an interest in encouraging stable relationships regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of the partners and the entire community benefits when couples undertake the mutual obligations of marriage.”

The bill removes language from Minnesota statutes stemming from the 1997 Defense of Marriage Act. Instead, statutes that refer to “husband” and “wife” would also refer to “spouse.”

Doug Benson of Marriage Equality Minnesota, which helped draft a similar bill last year, said the bill isn’t likely to go anywhere.

“With little chance of passage this biennium, it is largely a symbolic gesture, but symbols are important,” he said. “We are pushing forward toward equality in the face of our oppressors’ onslaught,” he added, referring to a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

The bill introduction coincides with a rally opposing the constitutional gay marriage ban hosted by LGBT group, OutFront Minnesota.

On the House side, the bill was sponsored by Reps. Phyllis Kahn of Minneapolis, Diane Loeffler of Minneapolis, Erin Murphy of St. Paul, Carolyn Laine of Columbia Heights, Mindy Greiling of Roseville, Tina Liebling of Rochester, Jeff Hayden of Minneapolis, Ryan Winkler of St. Louis Park, Frank Hornstein of Minneapolis, John Lesch of St. Paul, Carlos Mariani of St. Paul, Michael Paymar of St. Paul, Jim Davnie of Minneapolis, Bill Hilty of Finlayson, Bobby Jo Champion of Minneapolis, Thomas Huntley of Duluth, Alice Hausman of St. Paul, Kerry Gauthier of Duluth, Rena Moran of St. Paul, Sheldon Johnson of St. Paul, Jean Wagenius of Minneapolis, Linda Slocum of Richfield and Marion Greene of Minneapolis.

Sens. John Marty of Rosevile, Linda Higgins of Minneapolis, Scott Dibble of Minneapolis, Patricia Torres Ray of Minneapolis, and Mary Jo McGuire of St. Paul.

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.

Last week, the Courage Campaign noted that Klobuchar was one of two Democratic senators who hadn’t signed on to the DOMA repeal bill (the other is Wisconsin’s Herb Kohl) and that her office stated that she had not taken a position on the bill. That prompted OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, to initiate a campaign urging constituents to call on her to support the repeal.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Dibble of Minneapolis noted that he spoke with Klobuchar’s staff, who indicated she would vote for the measure.

“I have spoken directly with Amy Klobuchar’s State Director,” Dibble wrote on Facebook. “Senator Klobuchar will be voting for the repeal of DOMA in the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Klobuchar’s press office has not responded to the Minnesota Independent’s request for confirmation.

DOMA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. It bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage which, at the time, no states had legalized. Today, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, the District of Columbia and the Coquille Tribal Council in Oregon perform same-sex marriages, and thousands of Californians are also legally married following several months in 2008 prior to the passage of Prop 8 when same-sex marriage was legal.

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.

The bill would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1995 bill signed by President Clinton which bans the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. In February, President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder evaluated the law, found it likely to be unconstitutional and decided not to defend the law in court challenges. And last Wednesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California introduced a bill to repeal the law.

Minnesota’s Sen. Al Franken, who also sits on the 18-member judiciary committee, is a sponsor of the bill. In order to pass the committee, the bill needs 10 votes, and eight senators on that committee are already sponsors. Eight other members of the committee are Republicans not likely to vote for the bill. That leaves two votes unaccounted for, those of Klobuchar and Kohl.

The Courage Campaign, a proponent of the bill, contacted Klobuchar and Kohl late last week.

“I just got off the phone with the offices of Democratic Sens. Kohl (D-WI) and Klobuchar (D-MN), who are not co-sponsors and told me they have not yet taken a position on the bill itself yet,” wrote Adam Bink, director of online programs for the Courage Campaign. “To my knowledge, no Republicans on the committee have taken a position on this bill, either. So we are two [votes] shy.”

OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy group, responded to the news in a Facebook posting: “Who knew Amy Klobuchar hasn’t taken a position on the repeal of DOMA? It’ll probably come as a surprise to thousands of voters (and donors).”

In addition to the Senate bill, Minnesota Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum are sponsors of a House version.

“There are tens of thousands of legally marriage same-sex couples in the United States,” Sen. Feinstein said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Right now, because of DOMA, these couples cannot take advatage of federal protections available to every other married couples in this country.”

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.

The resolution “condemns the Obama administration’s direction that the Department of Justice should discontinue defending the Defense of Marriage Act; and demands that the Department of Justice continue to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in all instances.”

House Speaker John Boehner has directed the House’s legal counsel to resume defense of DOMA.

The resolution writers also took a dig at Obama by asserting that he was defending the Affordable Car Act that conservatives view as unconstitutional while denouncing the unconstitutionality of DOMA.

Bachmann is the only member of Congress from Minnesota who has signed on to the resolution.

Here’s the full text:

Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the Obama administration’s discontinuing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.

Whereas on February 23, 2011, President Barack Obama ordered the Justice Department to drop its defense of a central part of the 1996 law that bars the Federal Government from recognizing same-sex unions, the Defense of Marriage Act, and both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder concluded the law is unconstitutional;

Whereas President Obama himself has said that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman;

Whereas passed by significant majorities in both chambers of Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, the Defense of Marriage Act has never been overturned in any Federal lawsuit challenging its constitutionality by a Federal Court, yet the Department of Justice has decided not to defend this act in Federal court;

Whereas on the contrary, the Department of Justice is vigorously defending in numerous Federal courts across the country President Obama’s signature health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148), and the related Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-152), after these bills barely passed both chambers of Congress on party line votes, and whose critical Individual Mandate provision has been declared unconstitutional by, separate Federal district courts in the cases of Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services, Case No.: 3:10-cv-91-RV/EMT (N.D. Fla., Jan. 31, 2011), and Virginia ex rel. Cuccinelli v. Sebelius, No. 3:10cv188-HEH (E.D. Va., filed Dec. 13, 2010); and

Whereas the vast majority of Americans believe that marriage should continue to be what it always has been–the legal and spiritual union between one man and one woman: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress–

(1) condemns the Obama administration’s direction that the Department of Justice should discontinue defending the Defense of Marriage Act; and

(2) demands that the Department of Justice continue to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in all instances.