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发帖数: 374 | 1 http://lezgetreal.com/2011/07/no-vote-on-repealing-doma-in-hous
No Vote On Repealing DOMA In House
Tagged with: Barack Obama Defense of Marriage Act Evan Wolfson
Maggie Gallagher Republican Party (United States) Respect for Marriage
Act United States United States House of Representatives
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23 July 2011
by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
None of us have seriously expected that the House of Representatives would
take up the Respect for Marriage Act. After all, the Republicans have to try
and hold onto what is left of their base, and at this point, they are just
scared that the rest of the country is going to turn their back on them.
They are relying upon acts like closing DMV offices in Democratic districts
after passing laws requiring voter identification in order for people to
vote.
Recently, US House Speaker John Boehner told the Washington Blade ”Congress
has acted on this issue some number of years ago, and I think that the
Congress acted on [it] in a bi-partisan way. It is the law of the land and
should remain the law of the land.”
It is not surprising. Boehner is wasting valuable money in order to defend
the Defense of Marriage Act in court after parts of it were declared
unconstitutional and President Barack Obama abandoned the defense of it on
that basis.
Evan Wolfson, the President of Freedom to Marry, has said that he hopes that
Boehner will change his mind about the DOMA repeal, and recalled the
testimony that happened this week in the Senate. Wolfson said “I hope
Speaker Boehner will reconsider his apparent refusal to allow for a vote on
repealing the so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act,’ which civil rights hero
, Congressman John Lewis, rightly called a stain on our democracy. Much has
changed since 1996 — including the fact that we now have tens of thousands
of married same-sex couples, many with children, directly harmed by DOMA’s
departure from the traditional federal practice of honoring lawful marriages
.”
I wouldn’t count on it. In fact, let us be honest, DOMA is not going to be
going down any time soon except by court. Wolfson also said “Just as the
Republican sponsor of DOMA then now supports its immediate repeal, so should
other members of Congress be permitted to reconsider bad legislation, the
unfairness of which was powerfully demonstrated at the Senate hearing
yesterday.”
John Boehner is in a very difficult spot. The coalition that has supported
the Republicans for so long, which now has its face in the Tea Party, is
fractured and there is a lot of infighting. While there are Republicans who
could get away with supporting the RFMA in the Northeast, along the West
Coast, and in the Midwest, just voting for it would doom the party in the
South and Southwest, which is the stronghold of the Republicans.
According to New York Democrat Representative Jarrold Nadler, the sponsor of
the RFMA, he feels confident that “we will soon see growing Republican
congressional support for repealing DOMA.” This is especially in the wake
of marriage equality legislation passing in New York. Nadler also said “A
number of House Republicans have told me privately that they feel the same
way. This, coupled with the fact that there is now a majority of Americans
who support equality and with the recent polling data showing that a
majority of Republican voters want GOP leadership to give up their position
on this matter, means that it is only a matter of time before we act in a
bipartisan manner and repeal DOMA. And, believe me, we will keep pushing to
get it done until we have succeeded.”
Of course, Maggie Gallagher, the chair of the National Organization for
marriage, said “We applaud Boehner for saying he sees no good reason for
wasting time on a vote to repeal DOMA. The House just voted to re-affirm
DOMA by a powerful bi-partisan majority in the context of the military.”
Gallagher was not courageous enough to appear before the Senate. This was
not surprising given the way in which her fellow bigots had their testimony
slaughtered by the Senate Democrats. |
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