132 House Democrats Oppose DOMA in Golinski

A majority of House Democrats have signed on to a pro-marriage equality, anti-DOMA brief in the Golinski v OPM lawsuit which last week the U.S. Department of Justice asked the United States Supreme Court to grant certiorari in even though the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled argument of an appeal in which a federal district court judge ruled DOMA was unconstitutionally being used to prevent a federal employee from putting her legally married spouse on her health plan at work.

The writing and circulation of the amicus brief was coordinated by Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and was endorsed by 132 Democratic members of the U.. House of Representatives. This is significant because the primary group defending DOMA is the 5-member "Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group" (more commonly known as BLAG) of the House, which thanks to the Republican majority in the House is stacked with notorious homophobes and heterosexual supremacists (like House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy). Both of the two Democratic members of BLAG, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer signed on to the brief opposing BLAG's defense of DOMA and reiterating their position that DOMA is unconstitutional. Since BLAG claims to represent the interests of the U.S. House of Representatives in federal legislation that was passed way back in 1996, it is important to note that a significant fraction of the House does not support BLAG's actions.

However, even though 132 Democrats signed on to the brief, nearly half as many did not. 59 Democratic members, generally from "red" or conservative districts refused to sign on to the brief. The list of these Democrats is above.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God.

Senate Judiciary Passes DOMA Repeal Bill!

Today the United States Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Respect for Marriage Act by a party-line vote of 10-8 with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against. Think Progress has video clips of the absolutely insane things the Republican opponents said to defend their increasingly tenuous and arbitrary defense of the Defense of Marriage Act.

President Obama endorsed the bill in July and the White House issued a statement after the vote which said:

President Obama applauds today’s vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve the Respect for Marriage Act, which would provide a legislative repeal of the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act.” The President has long believed that DOMA is discriminatory and has called for its repeal. We should all work towards taking this law off the books. The federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples the same rights and legal protections afforded to straight couples.”

Very important result. It will be interesting if they can even get a vote on the bill on the Senate floor

UGH: "In God We Trust" Passes U.S. House 396-9

This is just sickening. The United States House of Representatives spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of staff and Members' time to debate and pass a meaningless measure (H.R. Con. 13) to reaffirm that the national motto is "In God We Trust" and that it should be publicly displayed. The vote was a depressing 396 to 9.

More disgustingly, only 9 Congressmembers had the guts to vote against the measure, including one Republican. Interestingly, of these 9 free thinkers three of them are my heroes: Judy Chu (API LGBT champion) and Jerrold Nadler (co-sponsor of the DOMA repeal bill) and Pete Stark (only acknowledged atheist in Congress). Interestingly, a Republican, Justin Amash also voted against the measure and gave a statement as to why which Joe.My.God highlights today.

The full roll call list of the 9 who voted No an the 2 who voted "present" are:

VOTING NO 

Ackerman 

Amash 

Chu 

Cleaver

Honda 

Johnson (GA) 

NadlerScott (VA) 

Stark

VOTING "PRESENT" 

Ellison 

Watt

It should also be noted that Mike Honda the co-sponsor of an immigration bill that would produce immigration equality for same-sex binational couples also voted against the meaningless theocratic measure. Keith Ellison is noteworthy because he is the only acknowledged Muslim member of Congress.

This vote incenses me so much that it just doubles my intention to refocus my efforts at highlighting issues of religious freedom, atheism, agnosticism (as well as the dangers of theocracy) at this blog, at least once a week, generally on Wednesdays.

Bill To Repeal DOMA Introduced

Yesterday, U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and more than ninety other congressmembers introduced the Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 3567) in Washington, D.C. which would repeal 1996's Defense of Marriage Act.

According to The Advocate there are currently 92 Congressmembers who voted for that bill and who are still in Congress now:

Sanford Bishop (D-AL)
Rick Boucher (D-VA)
Corrine Brown (D-FL)
James Clyburn (D-SC)
Jerry Costello (D-IL)
Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
Norman Dicks (D-WA)
John Dingell (D-MI)
Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
Chet Edwards (D-TX)
Bart Gordon (D-TN)
Gene Green (D-TX)
Tim Holden (D-PA)
Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Dale Kildee (D-MI)
Sander Levin (D-MI)
Daniel Lipinski (D-IL)
Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
John Murtha (D-PA)
Richard Neal (D-MA)
James Oberstar (D-MN)
David Obey (D-WI)
Solomon Ortiz (D-TX)
Collin Peterson (D-MN)
Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
Nick Rahall (D-WV)
Bobby Rush (D-IL)
Ike Skelton (D-MO)
John Spratt (D-SC)
Bart Stupak (D-MI)
John Tanner (D-TN)
Gene Taylor (D-MS)
Peter Visclosky (D-IN)

Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
Joe Barton (R-TX)
Brian Bilbray (R-CA)
John Boehner (R-OH)
Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Dave Camp (R-MI)
Michael Castle (R-DE)
Howard Coble (R-NC)
Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
David Dreier (R-CA)
John Duncan Jr. (R-TN)
Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
Elton Gallegly (R-CA)
Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
Ralph Hall (R-TX)
Doc Hastings (R-WA)
Wally Herger (R-CA)
Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Bob Inglis (R-SC)
Sam Johnson (R-TX)
Walter Jones (R-NC)
Pete King (R-NY)
Jack Kingston (R-GA)
Tom Latham (R-IA)
Steven LaTourette (R-OH)
Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
John Linder (R-GA)
Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)
Frank Lucas (R-OK)
John McHugh (R-NY)
Buck McKeon (R-CA)
John Mica (R-FL)
Sue Myrick (R-NC)
Thomas Petri (R-WI)
George Radanovich (R-CA)
Harold Rogers (R-KY)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Ed Royce (R-CA)
James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Lamar Smith (R-TX)
Mark Souder (R-IN)
Cliff Stearns (R-FL)
Mac Thornberry (R-TX)
Todd Tiahrt (R-KS)
Fred Upton (R-MI)
Zach Wamp (R-TN)
Ed Whitfield (R-KY)
Frank Wolf (R-VA)
Don Young (R-AK)

There are at least 5 members of the Congressional Black Caucus who voted for DOMA who are still in Congress. Let's hope that now that there are legally married same-sex couples in California, Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut and Vermont these elected officials will see the error of their ways and support Rep. Nadler's bill to correct their mistake from 13 years ago.

President Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA into law, is one of several former supports of the bill who now support H.R. 3567 and said so in a statement released yesterday.

“Throughout my life I have opposed discrimination of any kind,” Clinton said, according to Nadler. “When the Defense of Marriage Act was passed, gay couples could not marry anywhere in the United States or the world for that matter. Thirteen years later, the fabric of our country has changed, and so should this policy."