A Republican-controlled congressional body this week used a controversial new parenting study to argue that the Defense of Marriage Act is constitutional.
Just one day after the results of a controversial parenting study were released to the public, the research was used – and misrepresented – in a federal court brief defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act.
A unanimous federal appeals court ruling issued in Boston today found the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional in that it discriminates against same-sex couples. The ruling is a victory for the Obama administration and supporters of both gay rights and states’ rights and a blow for the national anti-gay marriage movement and for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who filed a controversial and critics say confused amicus brief in the case last year in support of the embattled federal law.
Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall at a gay-rights event this weekend in Denver said he supports marriage equality for all Americans. Udall joins a growing list of lawmakers who have gone on record in support of ending the era where the federal Defense of Marriage Act and where constitutional bans like Colorado’s Amendment 43 blocked LGBT couples from the legal protections and advantages provided by the state through marriage. Udall is the 18th sitting U.S. Senator to state publicly that he supports efforts to make gay marriage legal.
The White House announced this week that President Barack Obama was throwing his support behind legislation which would effectively kill the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
At a hearing on the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, Sen. Al Franken took issue with the testimony of Tom Minnery, the head of Focus on the Family’s political arm, CitizenLink. After Minnery cited a government study he said showed that the children of married gay and lesbian couples fared worse than married opposite-sex couples, Franken flatly stated that Minnery was wrong and called into question any further testimony from Minnery.
The battle between the Obama Administration and House Republicans over the Defense of Marriage Act (which has come to include GOP state attorneys general like Colorado’s John Suthers) took an historic turn last week. Responding to a filing brought by lawyers on behalf of House Republicans and led by conservative legal eagle Paul Clement, the Department of Justice clearly sought to bury a stake deep into the heart of the the act, delivering an expansive brief outlining for the first time the federal government’s role in singling out gay and lesbian Americans for discrimination (pdf). Chris Geidner, writing legal analysis at MetroWeekly’s progay PoliGlot blog, called the brief a “must read” and “instantly historic” and “the single-most persuasive legal argument ever advanced by the United States government in support of equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.”
Senator Michael Bennet today signed on as a co-sponsor of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
The U.S. House Subcommittee on the Constitution is scheduled to hold a hearing Friday titled “Defending Marriage,” called by subcommittee chairman Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who has recently called for the impeachment of President Barack Obama because of his decision to order his administration to no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Openly gay Chairman of the Colorado Federation of College Republicans Troy Ard is lobbying colleagues and friends to support Senator Pat Steadman’s same-sex civil unions bill making its way through the state legislature. Ard’s support for the bill is personal, political and ideological. He wants to enjoy equal rights under the law as a gay American; he believes the Republican brand would benefit enormously by embracing gay rights; and he believes Americans should always be pushing their government to expand individual liberties.
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