Senate Panel Presses Ahead with Family Parity Bill

A Senate panel will be pressing ahead with a bill that would repeal an anti-gay 1996 law that bans federal recognition of gay families.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, issued a statement on Oct. 14 announcing that his committee would be holding a markup for the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that, if passed, would undo the 1996 anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Because of DOMA, gay and lesbian families have no federal rights or protections, and are left at the mercy of extremely variable state laws. Simply crossing a border from a marriage equality state into a state where marriage--or, in some cases, any legal recognition of same-sex couples, including civil unions and domestic partnerships--are denied families headed by two men or two women.

Same-sex families also face uncertainty in terms of their legal relationships to their own children thanks to a lack of federal protections.

Two federal court challenges have already resulted in rulings that parts of DOMA violate the United States Constitution. Because of such questions of Constitutional muster, the Obama Administration announced earlier this year that it would no longer defend the law in federal court.

Anti-gay Congressional members have hired a private attorney at taxpayer expense to defend the law.

A "markup" is a process that allows lawmakers to deliberate on and revise bills. A markup is generally seen as a positive sign in a bill's progress toward congressional approval.

"This markup is an incredible step toward ending federal marriage discrimination that causes real harm to American families," the leader of the Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solmonese said. "Chairman Leahy and Senator Feinstein have been leaders in this fight and we applaud them for continuing the momentum against this unjust law."

"The Respect for Marriage Act--the DOMA repeal bill--had a hearing before the committee in July where HRC President Joe Solmonese testified," noted an Oct. 14 media release from the HRC. "It was the first time that DOMA had a hearing in Congress since its enactment 15 years ago and this markup represents another historic first."

"The federal government shouldn't be in the business of picking which marriages it likes and which it doesn't, but that's exactly what DOMA does," Solmonese continued. "The reality of DOMA is heart-wrenching discrimination against loving families."

"DOMA prevents any of the over 1,100 federal rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage from being afforded to legally married same-sex couples," the HRC release added.

"These include Social Security survivor benefits, federal employee health benefits for spouses, protections against spouses losing their homes in cases of severe medical emergencies, the right to sponsor a foreign born partner for immigration, the guarantee of family and medical leave and the ability to file joint tax returns, among many others."

"Thousands of loving and committed couples have gotten married in New York and other states since the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the Respect for Marriage Act in July, and all of them are now enduring direct harms because of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and its double standard," the founding president a national family equality group Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson, said in an Oct. 14 media release.

"It is time for Congress to repeal DOMA's discrimination, and we are pleased that Senator Leahy is moving the Respect for Marriage Act forward," Wolfson added.

"From its introduction, cosponsors on the Senate version have grown from 18 to 29 and on the House version, from 108 to 128, which already surpasses last year's total of 120," noted the Freedom to Marry release.

"In July, Wolfson testified at the US Senate Judiciary Committee's first-ever hearing on repealing DOMA, calling on Congress to put an end to the discriminatory law and return the federal government to its appropriate role of respecting marriages performed in the states," the release continued.

"In addition, Ron Wallen testified about the harm DOMA has inflicted on him after the death of his spouse," the release continued. "Wallen married his partner of 58 years, Tom Carrollo, in California before the freedom to marry was stripped away by Proposition 8," the ballot initiative that rescinded the then-existing right of gay and lesbian families in that state to marry.

"Carroll died in March 2011," the release continued. "Because DOMA denies him access to the Social Security Survivor benefit, Wallen can no longer afford to live in the home he shared with his husband and, as a result, he is rushing to sell the home."

Co-sponsor Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, hailed the markup.

"I applaud Chairman Leahy for taking these steps to end the discrimination that is currently enshrined into U.S. law," Gillibrand said in a media release issued by her office on Oct. 14.

"Marriage is the true foundation for strong families," Gillibrand added. "Every loving, committed couple deserves the basic human right to get married, start a family, and have access to all the same rights and privileges that my husband and I enjoy. No politician should stand in the way of this fact.

"If Democrats and Republicans can come together to do what's right in New York, I know we can do the same in Congress to do what's right for all of America. Now is the time to act on the federal level."

"Senator Gillibrand is an original co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which was authored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and co-sponsored by Senators Leahy (D-Vt.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii), and Daniel Akaka(D-Hawaii)," the release said.