The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (that’s GLAD with one “A”), New England’s leading legal rights organization dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status and gender identity and expression, is launching a challenge against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
In the video above, GLAD Civil Rights Project Director Mary Bonauto explains the personal costs of DOMA.
What is this lawsuit about?
This lawsuit challenges the federal government’s denial of marriage-related protections, benefits and responsibilities to legally married same-sex couples – federal protections that are available to all other legally married couples.The law in question, DOMA Section 3, deprives families of federally-created economic safety nets that couples count on when they marry and that help them take care of each other, to the detriment of those couples and their children and other dependents. It creates a system of first and second class marriages, where the former receive all federal legal protections, and the latter are denied them, even while taking on the responsibilities of marriage
What is the legal basis of the lawsuit?
GLAD believes that DOMA Section 3 violates the federal government’s promise of equal protection of the laws contained in the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution. It singles out just one class of marriages for disrespect and then denies those same-sex couples every single legal protection and responsibility otherwise available to married couples.Why A Court Case? Why Not the Congress?
While President Obama supports the repeal of DOMA, given the current wars, economic conditions, and a host of other issues, including other LGBT issues, many political experts believe that repeal of DOMA Section 3 is unlikely to happen in the next four years. Repealing DOMA Section 3 will take time and investment in public education and lobbying, something this lawsuit will prompt regardless of its ultimate outcome.
Read more about DOMA’s unconstitutionality on GLAD’s website.
No word on when this would hit the courts. But, as I was writing this, I kept thinking about what would happen if Prop 8 is upheld in California and DOMA is repealed. I have no idea, but I’m going to find out.
UPDATED: Video of GLAD’s announcement of the challenge to DOMA after the jump.
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