#1 'Respect For Marriage Act' introduced. It's good news.
Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 10:32 am
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Expect huge conservative freakouts when this gets scheduled.The Respect for Marriage Act, which, if passed, would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law in 1996, was introduced in the House today.
Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) are the lead co-sponsors of the measure along with Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY).
The bill would also provide same-sex couples with federal benefits and protections from a valid marriage from a state where same-sex marriages are legal if the couple moves or travels to another state, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
“DOMA does real harm by denying thousands of lawfully-married same-sex couples the federal rights and benefits that only flow through marriage. Many of these include the protections couples turn to in times of need, like Social Security survivors’ benefits, medical leave to care for an ailing spouse and equal treatment under U.S. immigration laws. Today’s introduction of legislation to repeal DOMA is a welcome step, and as more states recognize the commitment of loving same-sex couples and their families, it's time for this law to go into the history books where it belongs," said HRC President Joe Solmonese in a statement.
“We thank Reps. Nadler, Baldwin, Polis, Lewis and Velazquez for introducing this bill to dismantle one of the most discriminatory and far-reaching laws to emerge against our community: the so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act'," said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director Rea Carey in a statement.