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发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com September 15, 2011 08:40:00 AM ET
N.C. Congressman Opposes Antigay Amendment, Will Cosponsor DOMA Repeal
By Andrew Harmon and Julie Bolcer
Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.) A North Carolina congressman who opposes a state
anti-gay marriage amendment will now cosponsor federal legislation to repeal
the Defense of Marriage Act.
Speaking with The Advocate, Rep. Brad Miller, a Democrat who represents
North Carolina’s 13th congressional district, said Wednesday afternoon of
DOMA repeal, “For a couple who has been married legally, every state should
be required to give full faith and credit. North Carolina would still not
be required to perform civil marriage, but it would be required to [
recognize] marriages performed in other states.”
Of the state antigay amendment, which the North Carolina legislature
approved earlier this week to go before voters during the Republican
presidential primary in May, Miller said, “This is entirely about putting
on the ballot a very divisive issue for political purposes ... and to try to
lock in the attitudes of one generation. The amendment goes well beyond
marriage and would prohibit any type of civil union legal recognition as
well.”
The timing of the ballot question will likely boost the chances of the
measure’s success in North Carolina, the only state in the Southeast
without a constitutional ban against marriage equality. Though the state
already has a statute banning same-sex marriage, proponents of the ballot
measure argue that a constitutional amendment is needed to prevent the
courts from overturning the ban.
Miller said the amendment, if passed, also could negatively impact gay-
friendly companies in the state seeking to attract and retain top-tier
employees.
A former member of the North Carolina legislature first elected to Congress
in 2002, Miller is the 123rd House cosponsor of legislation to repeal DOMA,
which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages and is opposed by the
Obama administration. Earlier this week, the current House bill, known as
the Respect for Marriage Act, exceeded the number of cosponsors compared to
the last congressional session when Reps. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Jim
Langevin of Rhode Island signed on in support. The House repeal bill was
originally introduced in 2009 by New York representative Jerrold Nadler and
in the Senate in March by California senator Dianne Feinstein.
Miller is the second North Carolina representative to cosponsor the repeal
bill, joining Rep. David Price, a Democrat representing the state’s 4th
district, whose office told The Advocate Wednesday that he also opposed the
state antigay constitutional amendment. A spokesman for Rep. Howard Coble, a
North Carolina Republican, said he supports the amendment.
Miller, whose district lies in the northern part of the state and includes
sections of Raleigh and Greensboro as well as Wake Forest, said he had not
previously considered cosponsoring DOMA repeal, though he said he does have
gay friends who have married elsewhere in the country, including a member of
his own staff. Following a telephone interview with this magazine, the
congressman said he had notified Rep. Nadler’s office regarding his
decision to cosponsor the bill (a Nadler spokesman confirmed that Miller is
now a cosponsor).
Though political observers don’t expect DOMA repeal to move this year in a
Republican-controlled House, sources said that LGBT advocacy groups are
actively lobbying for Republican cosponsors, though they have yet to draw
any public support from across the aisle.
Rep. Miller was joined by state and national LGBT groups in condemning the
state legislature’s approval of the amendment for the May ballot as a
cynical affront to North Carolina’s LGBT citizens.
"Politically scheming to put such a cruel and discriminatory measure on a
low-turnout Republican presidential primary ballot is a sham designed to
circumvent the majority of North Carolina voters, who polls say, oppose this
amendment and the injury it will inflict not just on families, but the
state,” said Marc Solomon, national campaign director for Freedom to Marry.
On the same day that he praised Oregon’s Republican Party for stripping
antigay language from its platform, Log Cabin Republicans executive director
R. Clarke Cooper called the North Carolina move a “[retreat] to the
politics of the past."
"[A] party which does not respect the freedom and dignity of all Americans
will alienate the moderate, independent and younger voters we need to
succeed,” Cooper said.
Though he did not specifically address the North Carolina amendment, White
House spokesman Shin Inouye said Tuesday, “[T]he record is clear that the
President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny
rights and benefits to same sex couples. The President believes strongly in
stopping laws designed to take rights away.”
The Advocate has contacted all members of the North Carolina congressional
delegation for their positions on the state constitutional amendment. |
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