Obama Supports States' OK of Same-sex Marriage

San Francisco Bay Times




By Rex Wockner
Published: March 6, 2008



Highlights Differences with Clinton on DOMA

In a Feb. 28 open letter to the LGBT community, presidential candidate Barack Obama stated his support for full same-sex marriage in states that choose to go that route. To date, only Massachusetts has done so. Bills legalizing same-sex marriage have passed California’s legislature twice, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed them.

“As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws,” Obama said. “I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples - whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage.”

Obama also said he’s better on the issue than Hillary Clinton. “Unlike Senator Clinton, I support the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) - a position I have held since before arriving in the U.S. Senate,” he said. “I believe we should get rid of that statute altogether. Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples, which is precisely what DOMA does.”

But achieving full equality for gay people will not be easy, Obama said. “If we want to repeal DOMA, repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and implement fully inclusive laws outlawing hate crimes and discrimination in the workplace, we need to bring the message of LGBT equality to skeptical audiences as well as friendly ones,” he said. “I have been talking about LGBT equality to a number of groups during this campaign - from local LGBT activists to rural farmers to parishioners at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. ...

“I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work we must do to move forward together. It is difficult. It is challenging. And it is necessary.”

DOMA, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, says, “No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.”

The law’s second part says, “In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”

Hillary Clinton has said she supports repeal only of the second part of DOMA. In effect, that means Clinton supports same-sex couples’ having access to federal benefits but wants to continue granting states extra legal cover for rejecting other states’ same-sex unions. She also has suggested that the first part of DOMA helps reduce the nation’s appetite for amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Opponents of Clinton’s position say that, among other things, it hinders same-sex couples’ freedom of movement by encouraging nonrecognition of their legal same-sex unions when they enter most U.S. states.The vote for DOMA was 342-67 in the House of Representatives and 85-14 in the Senate.