As expected, House and Senate members on Wednesday will introduce bills in each chamber to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. It’s a symbolic move more than anything; the Republican-controlled House is just going to laugh at this. Important nonetheless. The Respect for Marriage Act has 105 House co-sponsors; Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Patrick Leahy are bringing the bill to the Senate. So glad we’re doing this in March 2011, and not October 2010.
legisgaytion
Democrats Get Around To Trying To Repeal DOMA After They’ve Lost Any Hope Of Doing It
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
Ummmmmmm Bitterness
Well, at least you recognize when your chain’s getting yanked. I hope you can vent this frustration into something productive, maybe start lobbying those evil republicans? ;0)
Elloreigh
Message to Democrats: This is NOT how you win the gay vote. You EARN it by actually having the guts to support us when it’s not necessarily politically convenient, not by waiting to be our ‘advocates’ until such time as the legislation you’re proposing has zero chance of passing, or until you’ve left office.
Woe to Democrats if some honest competition for our votes ever arises to challenge them.
Ian
@Elloreigh: Your making too much sense. The “support dems at all costs” crowd are going to ream you for not spreading your cheeks and opening your wallet and just shutting up like a good little queer. How DARE you demand that they do something for US after we voted them in??
Soupy
I’m fine with this. But please don’t think that the repugnicans will help you and give your dollars to them.
Francis
The one positive of this is that it’s putting the issue out there, and creating some dialogue and open lines of communication, hopefully. Also, we can find out which Dems don’t support us, and the few Repubs who do, and make our decisions on who to support accordingly. With all of that said, no-one should trust about 90% of politicians to do anything for us, ever. We cannot look at legislators to legislate. It’s simply not going to happen in most cases.
Shannon1981
Remember, the most important thing to ANY politician is being voted in another term. Even if, on a personal level, they agree with equal rights, but on a professional level they realize it will kill them come election time, they will turn a blind eye to what is right in order to advance a career. Never forget that.
Though, I will say that I’ll take a Democrat over a Rethuglican’t any day. The only ones I’ll even LOOK at are the ones who voted to repeal DADT, and, in this case, DOMA.
Cam
Nice of Feinstein to introduce this….a year after it had any chance of passing.
This way they get to blame it’s failure on the GOP and not on the Blue Dog Dems being against it.
christopher di spirito
The Dumbos had years to get this done and they failed.
But rest assured, the DNC and the HRC will come-a-calling in 2012 pleading for donations and reminding us of all they’ve done for the LGBT community.
This ATM is closed to all of them.
B
While “blue dog Democrats”, people from conservative states who managed to get elected due to the anger at Republicans, cannot survive if they consistently vote for your favor on gay-rights issues, they can vote to put gay-friendly people in Senate or House leadership positions.
B
While “blue dog Democrats”, people from conservative states who managed to get elected due to the anger at Republicans, cannot survive if they consistently vote for your favor on gay-rights issues, they can vote to put gay-friendly people in Senate or House leadership positions, so you are better off with them than with people completely hostile to you.
It’s not pretty, but when you have Senate rules that allow a minority of senators to block all progress, its probably the best you can do.
niles
Yeah, cut off your money and support for the Dems. That worked out great in 2010. What you see now from the repugs is just a prelude to what they have in store for you.
christopher di spirito
@niles: Sounds like you suffer from “Battered Spouse Syndrome.” Just keep coming back for more and more beatings from your Democratic keepers.
reason
This is more than symbolic, it is sending a message to all the democratic controlled legislators and state houses that the party is now solidly against DOMA. The last two years have been the most productive for gay friendly legislation in U.S. history, plus the policy changes in the federal government, the president said that by the end of his second term the community would be very happy with him, many here doubted him, but he has been delivering. Politics is based a lot on strategy, an activist is a turn off to most people even when the activist is telling the truth. The administration has to balance all of the priorities facing it to increase the chances of getting most of them done, GBLT rights has to be mixed in with everything else. The truth is that getting elected to a second term is crucial to effecting the most change, you balance priorities in the first to ensure you have a good chance of having a second and getting more done. A more robust economy would have strengthened the presidents hand, giving him more capital to expand upon a truly progressive agenda, the damage done to the economy by the previous administration has diminished those opportunities which will not be on solid footing until middle America is at least content with their situation. If they are happy they are less likely to try to hurt us, it is pretty common that when people are angry with their situation they look to an “other” to hurt. If the democrats do vote on this issue you will have senators on record voting for the repeal, which will be a welcomed reversal, and the day that democrats do gain the upper hand you can expect action. With any luck the action could happen at the Supreme court, the replacement of a conservative justice will go a long way in implementing the ideals that we dreamed of when the nation was established. The GOP does nothing more than destroy things and spend wildly when they control the government, when a democrat arrives suddenly they are fiscal hawks to prevent the democrats from advancing any of their priorities, fiscal and social, and destroy the accomplishments of the past. The GOP hates spending only when they are not controlling it, making everything about spending is to an effective technique in blocking everything social.
Jeffree
I expect a whole lotta nuthin’ from Congress given the gridlock between House & Senate, btwn Reps & Dems.
I’m not a single issue voter: LGB equality is important to me, but so is the economy, specifically employment creation.
So far I’m disappointed at the Democrats in terms of economics/jobs, but I’m hearing nothing from the Republicans on that except for “smaller government”. The Tea Party people seem have to switched from their libertarian ways and turned into rabid social conservatives, taking the Repub party even further to the right.
DOMA repeal seems to be a lost cause, and ENDA appears to be on hold indefinitely.
Brutus
@reason: Hear, hear.
Plus, I’m not 100% convinced that this is doomed to go nowhere. I imagine there are at least some legislators who would rather see DOMA repealed than have its unconstitutionality, currently in flux, established more firmly in the case law. That outcome preserves more power for Congress in the future.
That said, many if not most bills like this have to be introduced many times before they finally gain enough momentum to pass. This is just the beginning of the process, but once again, as usual, Queerty fails to understand how Washington works.
TomMc
@Elloreigh: Obama chose not to defend DOMA. The three Republican members of BLAG haven chosen to defend DOMA.
Obama, and other Democrats, were instrumental in repealing DADT. Certain Republicans want to reinstate a policy similar to it.
I was no Obama fan, but these past few months… Well, those people have done exceptional equality work.
TomMc
@christopher di spirito: Here’s a better example of masochism — GOPROUD at CPAC.
Kieran
The only way to explain these Democrats who play cynical political games with real people’s lives is that they don’t think gay people are too intelligent. And besides, gay voters have no where else to go anyway right? So we should be grateful for the occassional crumbs.
justiceontherocks
@Brutus: No, you and “reason” don’t understand how Washington works. The Republicans aren’t going to piss off their base by repealing DOMA. They control the House. It’ll never get out of committee. It’s dead in the water. Move on.
B
No. 18 · Kieran wrote, “The only way to explain these Democrats who play cynical political games with real people’s lives is that they don’t think gay people are too intelligent. And besides, gay voters have no where else to go anyway right? So we should be grateful for the occassional crumbs.”
While there is always some political posturing going on, the reality is that you can only get a finite number of bills through the legislature per year, and there will always be something that you’d ideally like to do that you couldn’t. Regardless of the faults of either party, however, the Democrats are far more likely to push gay-friendly legislation than the Republicans.
the crustybastard
Oh boy. Another empty gesture designed to mollify the lackwits.