In 1996, as a freshman member of the House of Representatives, I wrote the Defense of Marriage Act, better known by its shorthand acronym, DOMA, than its legal title. The law has been a flash-point for those arguing for or against same-sex marriage ever since President Clinton signed it into law. Even President-elect Barack Obama has grappled with its language, meaning and impact.

I can sympathize with the incoming commander in chief. And, after long and careful consideration, I have come to agree with him that the law should be repealed.

The left now decries DOMA as the barrier to federal recognition and benefits for married gay couples. At the other end of the political spectrum, however, DOMA has been lambasted for subverting the political momentum for a U.S. constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. In truth, the language of the legislation — like that of most federal laws — was a compromise.

DOMA was indeed designed to thwart the then-nascent move in a few state courts and legislatures to afford partial or full recognition to same-sex couples. The Hawaii court case Baehr vs. Lewin, still active while DOMA was being considered by Congress in mid-1996, provided the immediate impetus.

The Hawaii court was clearly leaning toward legalizing same-sex marriages. So the first part of DOMA was crafted to prevent the U.S. Constitution’s “full faith and credit” clause — which normally would require State B to recognize any lawful marriage performed in State A — from being used to extend one state’s recognition of same-sex marriage to other states whose citizens chose not to recognize such a union.

Contrary to the wishes of a number of my Republican colleagues, I crafted the legislation so it wasn’t a hammer the federal government could use to force states to recognize only unions between a man and a woman. Congress deliberately chose not to establish a single, nationwide definition of marriage.

However, we did incorporate into DOMA’s second part a definition of marriage that comported with the historic — and, at the time, widely accepted — view of the institution as being between a man and a woman only. But this definition was to be used solely to interpret provisions of federal law related to spouses.

The first part of DOMA, then, is a partial bow to principles of federalism, protecting the power of each state to determine its definition of marriage. The second part sets a legal definition of marriage only for purposes of federal law, but not for the states. That was the theory.

I’ve wrestled with this issue for the last several years and come to the conclusion that DOMA is not working out as planned. In testifying before Congress against a federal marriage amendment, and more recently while making my case to skeptical Libertarians as to why I was worthy of their support as their party’s presidential nominee, I have concluded that DOMA is neither meeting the principles of federalism it was supposed to, nor is its impact limited to federal law.

In effect, DOMA’s language reflects one-way federalism: It protects only those states that don’t want to accept a same-sex marriage granted by another state. Moreover, the heterosexual definition of marriage for purposes of federal laws — including, immigration, Social Security survivor rights and veteran’s benefits — has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions.

Even more so now than in 1996, I believe we need to reduce federal power over the lives of the citizenry and over the prerogatives of the states. It truly is time to get the federal government out of the marriage business. In law and policy, such decisions should be left to the people themselves.

In 2006, when then-Sen. Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, he said, “Decisions about marriage should be left to the states.” He was right then; and as I have come to realize, he is right now in concluding that DOMA has to go. If one truly believes in federalism and the primacy of state government over the federal, DOMA is simply incompatible with those notions.

Bob Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003 and was the Libertarian Party’s 2008 nominee for president.

For instructions how to find and contact your Representative and Senator, check out this site: http://www.equalmarriagenow.com/action-steps/

DEFEND EQUALITY’
fist
LOVE UNITES.

Tom: Why don’t the bigots help struggling families right now? Because they’re conservative. If you actually care about people other than yourself and your family you’re labeled “liberal” (as if 30 years of conservatism in this country has worked out SO well for us), “radical” “socialist” and/or “communist”.

info@allianceformarriage.org

They at least have to PAY somebody to delete our messages!

Bud Burgoon-Clark
San Diego CA USA
2nd class citizen, for NOW

Speaking of, Newt the Toad Gingrich needs a SERIOUS “high, hot, and a helluva lot” … a serial adulterer spouting off about LGBT people? Broke up with one wife while she was in the hospital with CANCER??!!

Give me an effing break.

Ditto evangelical preachers on the “down low,” gay or straight.

I’m from the South; preachers got the best piece of fried chicken at Sunday dinner and other men’s wives the rest of the week.

And preachers had BETTER tend to their OWN flocks and their OWN marriages before they start in on US.

JESUS said (paraphrasing) “get the 2×4 out of your OWN eye and THEN worry about the SPLINTER in your BROTHER’S eye.”

BUD BURGOON-CLARK
2nd class citizen for now, no thanks to ALL of the above-mentioned, and the ROMAN AND MORMON PAGAN FERTILITY CULTS

I think that he’ll probably need to work on building some support and look at all the legal options. Maybe in a few years he may be ready to consider it. But then, he could use it to lure the gays in for 2012.