Rep. Earl Blumenauer – D (OR) has written a piece for the Huffington Post explaining why he voted for DOMA originally, and more importantly, now, how he changed his mind:
On July 12, 1996, I cast the worst vote of my political career . . . it was a deliberate vote that I knew to be poor public policy and was against my values . . . Having given it much thought, I was convinced that by voting for this one federal statute against the recognition of same-sex marriage, it would somehow take the steam out of the Newt Gingrich-Tom Delay Congress, which was using the homophobic right-wing agenda to mobilize their base at the expense of millions of gay, lesbian, transgendered, and bisexual Americans.
. . . I assumed that my calculations would be understood by my friends in the community and that we would lay this obnoxious political vendetta to rest. Wrong on all counts.
I will work to make sure that my colleagues who once, for whatever reason, joined me in supporting this ill-advised measure take this opportunity to correct their record and eliminate an injustice.
Blumenauer is now one of the co-sponsors of the DOMA-repealing Respect for Marriage Act.
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