WASHINGTON (ABP) – President Obama lent his support July 19 to legislation that would repeal a 1996 law barring recognition of gay marriage by the federal government.
The president has said before that he supports legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state and defines marriage for the purpose of federal law as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”
Tuesday marked the first time that Obama officially endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act, introduced earlier this year in the Senate by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and reintroduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). The legislation would turn back the clock to pre-1996, when the federal government looked to the states to determine what legal relationships are eligible for benefits, like joint filing of taxes, taking unpaid leave to care for a sick or injured spouse and receiving survivor benefits under Social Security.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at a press briefing that the president “is proud to support” the new legislation, debated for the first time in the Senate on July 20.
“This legislation would uphold the principle that the federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples the same rights and legal protections as straight couples,” the White House spokesman said.
Obama has already ordered federal lawyers to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act because he believes it is unconstitutional. The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution in June calling on the president to direct the Justice Department “to follow through on its constitutional responsibility to defend vigorously the Defense of Marriage Act against all legal challenges with the full power of its office.”
The SBC resolution also repeated previous calls for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as “exclusively between one man and one woman.”
Testifying July 20 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Tom Minnery, senior vice president of Focus on the Family, said the new law is contrary to the will of voters as expressed in public-opinion polls, and numerous state laws banning gay marriage infringe on parental rights and harm children.
Supporters of DOMA repeal say it discriminates against gay and lesbian couples by denying them rights afforded other citizens.
Congress hastily passed the federal marriage act signed by President Clinton in 1996 amid fear that a court ruling might legalize gay marriage in Hawaii. That didn’t happen, but since then half a dozen states have passed laws allowing same-sex couples to marry.
The Respect for Marriage Act would require that any time marital status is a factor for federal purposes, an individual shall be considered married if his or her marriage is legal in the place where it occurred.
Public opinion polls show a majority of Americans hold to a traditional view of marriage as a union of a man and woman, but they also show strong support giving same-sex couples the same legal rights as everyone else.
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Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.