Some prominent gay rights groups (and the ACLU, of course) are fed up with the way President Obama is tackling the gay marriage issue (or rather, how he is not). The Obama administration released a brief today saying that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is legit and stands (for now).
DOMA was signed by former President Clinton and passed by Congress in 1996. There are two parts to the legislation: 1) Defines marriage for purpose of federal law as the “legal union between one man and one woman” 2) Reiterates the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV, Section I), which provides that states must recognize “legislative acts, public records, and judicial decisions” of other states. So basically DOMA allowed states to refuse to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state.
Opponents of DOMA say it’s unconstitutional because Congress over-reached its authority (way-back-when) in amending the Full Faith and Credit Clause, the law discriminates against the Equal Protection Clause, and/or the law violates the right to marriage under the Due Process Clause.
The President has made it very clear that he opposes gay marriage, and yet gay rights advocates are putting immense pressure on his administration to abolish all legislation that deters same-sex marriage. Obama said during the campaign that he opposed DOMA and would call for Congress to repeal it. Maybe he’s waiting for them. (Or maybe he hasn’t made up his mind yet.) Apparently he also scrubbed it from the White House website.
This is what the ACLU released about the brief:
When President Obama was courting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters, he said that he believed that DOMA should be repealed. We ask him to live up to his emphatic campaign promises, to stop making false and damaging legal arguments, and immediately to introduce a bill to repeal DOMA and ensure that every married couple in America has the same access to federal protections.
I think perhaps the gays are putting to much faith in Obama doing what he promised in the campaign. He doesn’t really need their support now that he’s sitting in the Oval Office. I also think that the same-sex marriage legislation is moving too fast in one direction and the majority of the public is not ready to deal with it right now (since we have quite a lot of other things going on). The gays would make more progress in pushing their agenda if they stopped ramming lawsuits and legislation through the courts.
Gay activists, like gossip blogger Perez Hilton, have been quick to defend Obama’s position on gay marriage because they believe he will ultimately side with them. But with this news of the Obama administration holding firm on DOMA and not making any steps towards changing current policies, all bets are off. I wonder what Perez thinks of Obama now…
Posted by Ian Mac 
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