Monday, 17
January 2011
17 January
2011
The Human
Rights Campaign has called on President Barack Obama to abandon his opposition
to same-sex marriage.
Obama has said he supports civil unions for gays but thinks marriage is for
straight couples. But he also has said his thinking on the issue is
"evolving" and "it's pretty clear where the trendlines are
going."
As such, "it's time for him to help lead the American public toward full
equality for all Americans," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "We
ask him to fully recognize the dignity of LGBT Americans and their families by
supporting marriage equality."
Solmonese's exhortation came as the Justice Department appealed two federal
court rulings from last July that struck down as unconstitutional the part of the
Defense of Marriage Act that prevents the federal government from recognizing
states' same-sex marriages.
The section states: "In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or
of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative
bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a
legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word
'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a
wife."
(The other section, which gives states cover to refuse to recognize other
states' same-sex marriages, was not targeted in the lawsuits.)
The administration has said it has a duty to defend U.S. laws -- including
those such as DOMA that the president opposes. HRC disputed that claim and
urged the Justice Department to "at the very least ... acknowledge that
(DOMA) is unconstitutional."
In its appeal to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the government argues:
" ... DOMA is rationally related to legitimate governmental interests. Congress
passed DOMA in 1996, at a time when states and their citizens were just
beginning to address the issue of marriage rights for same-sex couples. Since
that time, some states have enacted statutes or issued court decisions that
permit same-sex couples to marry, and other states have promulgated statutes or
constitutional amendments that define marriage as between a man and a woman.
"Other states do not allow same-sex couples to marry under their own laws,
but nonetheless recognize same-sex marriages from other states. DOMA, which
implicates over 1000 federal laws, reflects Congress's reasonable response to
this still-evolving debate among the states regarding same-sex marriage.
"The Constitution permitted Congress to enact DOMA as a means to preserve
the status quo, ensure consistency in the distribution of federal
marriage-based benefits, and respect policy developments in the states without
implicating other states or the United States, pending the resolution of the
debate taking place in the states over whether to permit same-sex
marriage."
In striking down DOMA, the federal District Court in Boston ruled that it
violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
by treating married gay couples differently from married straight couples
without any rational basis for doing so, violates the 10th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution by intruding in areas of exclusive state authority, and
violates the Spending Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution by forcing Massachusetts
to discriminate against its married gay citizens in order to receive certain
types of federal funding.
The government's appeal disputes all three determinations.
In 1996, when Obama was running for the Illinois Senate, he told the Chicago
gay newspaper Windy City Times that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage,
but since that time he has expressed support only for civil unions for same-sex
couples. Very recently, however, he has suggested that his feelings on the
matter may be in flux.
In December, he told The Advocate: "My attitudes are evolving on this. I
have always firmly believed in having a robust civil union that provides the
rights and benefits under the law that marriage does. I've wrestled with the
fact that marriage traditionally has had a different connotation. But I also
have a lot of very close friends who are married gay or lesbian couples. And
squaring that circle is something that I have not done yet, but I'm continually
asking myself this question, and I do think that -- I will make this
observation, that I notice there is a big generational difference. When you
talk to people who are in their 20s, they don't understand what the holdup is
on this, regardless of their own sexual orientation."
He made similar remarks to gay blogger Joe Sudbay last October.