No Repeal of DOMA Expected Until 2011--If Then
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama did not support marriage equality, but he did support the repeal of the so-called "Defense of Marriage" Act (DOMA), a 1996 law that bans any federal recognition of gay and lesbian families and allows states to deny marriage rights even to same-sex couples who have been legally wed in their home states. Obama also spoke of supporting some sort of legal provision to allow same-sex families access to civil unions on a national level.
Pro-family parity lawmakers have a bill that would strike down DOMA. They call it the Respect for Marriage Act; if passed into law, the bill would protect marriage--all marriages, that is--by granting federal-level recognition to families, gay or straight, who had been married in any jurisdiction.
Some family equality advocates do not support the bill because it applies only to married couples, and only five states currently allow for marriage equality; the proposed law would do nothing for families who are only recognized as domestic partners or as having a civil union, or--as is the case in the most anti-gay states--whose relationship is denied any legal recognition at all. It would, however, make the federal rights and protections of married couples portable, allowing them to retain federal recognition of their civil marriage even if they relocate to a state that forbids marriage equality.
But according to a Dec. 10 DC Agenda article, the sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, says that the bill will not pass next year; at the earliest, the bill might be signed into law in 2011--a prediction that assumes a midterm election outcome favorable to marriage equality activists and to the country's gay and lesbian families.
As matters stand in Congress right now, Nadler says, the bill hasn't got the support it would need. "The Respect for Marriage Act is a bill that we can't pass right now," Nadler told DC Agenda, adding that there are also other legislative measures that GLBT equality supporters in Congress are focusing on, such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and the end of the military ban on openly gay and lesbian troops. The target to pass those bills is next year, and, says Nadler, "The Respect for Marriage Act comes up after that, maybe at the end of the next Congress, maybe afterward." Added Nadler, "And I think if some of these other bills pass, it'll become more--the idea becomes less avant garde."
At the moment, the bill has 105 Congressional supporters; Nadler told DC Agenda that work on the bill in the next year would prioritize gaining additional support.
"I don't think we should begin the conversation about when it's going to happen" the executive director of Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson, told the publication. "I think we should begin the conversation with how do we build support and make it happen."
Added Wolfson, "There are two ways to talk about our movement. One is to talk about what it's really about, to actually make the case for inclusion and fairness and freedom, to talk about why marriage matters.
"The other is to spend all our time talking about the chess game or the political horse race, and we spend too much time on the latter and not enough time doing the former." Wolfson added that supporters needed to contact their representatives in the House and in the Senate and urge them to "sign on to the bill."
Nadler predicted that his own state, New York, would soon embrace marriage equality, despite the recent defeat dealt a bill to legalize family parity by members of the state Senate. "I'd be very surprised if New York didn't pass a gay marriage bill in the next two years, and I've been studying New York politics for 40 years," Nadler told DC Agenda. "And as long as we keep a Democratic governor and state Senate in the next election, we'll get a gay marriage bill relatively soon in New York."
Nadler also expressed optimism about the issue on a national scale. "Especially as a number of states have gay marriage, and the sky doesn't fall in, and nobody comes in and busts up regular marriages--other than what's busting up anyway--I think the issue will recede in the sense that people will lose their sense of the novelty."
One notable figure in Congress not to join Nadler in supporting the bill is Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, whose home state, Massachusetts, was the first to legalize marriage equality six years ago. The DC Agenda article said that Frank was of the opinion that the bill's provision to allow marriage rights to be portable across state lines could complicate re-election bids for Congressional supporters.
In September, Nadler responded to Frank's concerns by telling the now-defunct Washington Blade, "Mr. Frank knows better than anyone that our opponents will falsely claim that any DOMA repeal bill 'exports marriage' in an effort to generate fear and misunderstanding. But the dishonest tactics of our opponents should not stop us from aggressively pushing to end this horrific discrimination now, as is the consensus of the nation's top LGBT groups who all support this approach."
Still, the Blade reported, Congressman Frank viewed progress on the issue as more likely to come from the courts--specifically, a lawsuit against DOMA brought by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.
Frank called the suit "very thoughtful, very well done," and predicted, "That's the way we'll win this."
Even if Frank is proven wrong and the bill passes the House, if could face the same hurdle that other gay-friendly federal laws to clear Congress have faced: the Senate. Politico noted in a Sept. 14 article that there are doubts the Senate would send the measure to President Obama's desk.
Obama is another question mark. As a candidate, Obama spoke out against DOMA. He also spoke out against the ban on openly gay and lesbian troops in uniform, only to do little to banish "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" once in the White House. Overall, GLBT equality groups have grown impatient with the president's lack of action on gay issues.