DOMA Complaint Filed Against Boehner

Clip description: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) regarding the $500,000 contracted by the Office of the General Counsel for the defense of the Defense of Marriage Act."

Bankrupcy Court: DOMA Unconstitutional

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California has declared DOMA to be unconstitutional. The ruling arises from a case in which a married gay couple was denied the right to jointly declare bankruptcy. Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly provides the court's money quote:

This case is about equality, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, for two people who filed for protection under Title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code). Like many struggling families during these difficult economic times, Gene Balas and Carlos Morales (Debtors), filed a joint chapter 13 petition on February 24, 2011. Although the Debtors were legally married to each other in California on August 20, 2008, and remain married today, the United States Trustee (sometimes referred to simply as “trustee”) moved to dismiss this case pursuant to Bankruptcy Code § 1307(c) (Motion to Dismiss), asserting that the Debtors are ineligible to file a joint petition based on Bankruptcy Code § 302(a) because the Debtors are two males.

GOP Candidates Debate Marriage

Well, it's not much of a "debate."

Obama Issues Pride Month Proclamation

The White House today issued a proclamation recognizing LGBT Pride Month. Metro Weekly notes that for the first time since Obama took office, the statement makes no mention of recognizing gay relationships. The proclamation begins:

The story of America's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect Union. It is a story about the struggle to realize the great American promise that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law. Each June, we commemorate the courageous individuals who have fought to achieve this promise for LGBT Americans, and we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Read the proclamation in full (PDF).

Poll: Majority Of Christians Oppose DOMA

From a new poll conducted by the Human Rights Campaign:

The poll shows that Christians of all ages support LGBT equality. In fact, 68 percent of Christians favor protecting LGBT people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations compared. This number is in line with the 70 percent of overall respondents who favor such protections. 74 percent of Christians (compared to 76 percent overall) favor a law to prohibit bullying and harassment against minority groups in schools, including LGBT students or the children of LGBT parents. 70 percent of Christians believe that when religious leaders condemn LGBT people it does more harm than good. A majority of Christians - 52 percent - also oppose the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, according to a previous HRC poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll. Finally, an astounding 86 percent of Christians believe their faith leads them to the conclusion that the law should treat all people equally, including LGBT people.

Lots more graphs at the above link.

U.S. House Lawyers File To Intervene In Massachusetts DOMA Appeal

GLAD reports via press release:

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives filed a motion to intervene in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management the multi-plaintiff challenge to Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) with co-counsel Foley Hoag LLP, Sullivan & Worcester and Jenner & Block in March 2009.

On July 8, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro ruled that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional with respect to claims brought by the seven married same-sex couples and three widowers represented in the case. The case is now on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

“As always, we are prepared to address whatever comes our way,” said Mary L. Bonauto, GLAD’s Civil Rights Project Director and lead attorney in Gill. “We are eager to move forward and end the serious harms that are experienced not only by our plaintiffs and their families, but by same-sex married couples all over this country.”

Read the full motion (PDF).

Binational Couples Tell Their Stories

Learn more here.

(Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

Huckabee: DOMA Will Hurt Obama 2012

Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg Celebrates Reversal Of Navy Policy

It took the FRC less than 48 hours to muster their GOP drones in Congress to force the Navy to rescind their new policy allowing same-sex marriages on bases in jurisdictions where it is legal.

Tony Perkins On Navy Weddings

"If the administration keeps pounding its agenda through the military, we'll need the Navy SEALs to rescue marriage. Last week, we started to see some of the fallout from the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal. Without bothering to consult Congress-or the law-Navy officials decided to revise their training manuals to better accommodate same-sex 'marriage.' In a letter to the chaplain corps, Rear Admiral M.L. Tidd says it starts by freeing up military chaplains and facilities for homosexual weddings. 'This is a change,' Tidd wrote, 'to previous training that states same-sex marriages are not authorized on federal property.'

"Call it what you will, but that's not a change to 'training'--that's a circumvention of U.S. law. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)--which governs not just the military, but every federal entity--states that marriage is the legal union of a man and woman. Now that the ban on homosexuals in the military is overturned, the White House is trying to enlist the troops in its war on DOMA. And if the administration won't uphold the law, then it shouldn't surprise anyone that the President would order the military to ignore it." - Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, calling the decision to allow gay weddings on Navy bases "an assault on religious freedom."

NEW JERSEY: Judge Temporarily Halts Deportation Of Gay Man

A New Jersey immigration judge today temporarily halted the deportation of Henry Velandia, who is legally married to a U.S. citizen. This follows yesterday's move by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who vacated the decision to deport another gay man in the same situation.

Henry Velandia, who faces deportation to Venezuela, is petitioning to be allowed to remain in the U.S. as the spouse of U.S. citizen Josh Vandiver. Judge Alberto Riefkohl granted an adjournment of the case Friday in a Newark immigration court. At issue is who can be considered a spouse under federal law. Velandia is a 27-year-old professional salsa dancer and Vandiver is a 29-year-old graduate student at Princeton University. They were married last year in Connecticut, where same-sex marriage is legal.

GetEQUAL had staged a protest against the deportation outside the Newark courtroom.

Ron Paul: Get Government Out Of Marriage

And yet he goes on to defend DOMA.

AG Eric Holder Vacates Deportation Ruling

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has vacated a ruling ordering the deportation of Paul Wilson Dorman, who under Section 3 of DOMA is not entitled to stay in the United States despite being in a legal union with an American citizen. Metro Weekly reports:

Saying the attorney general "has taken [an] extraordinary step" with the decision, attorney Eric Berndt -- the supervising attorney for the National Asylum Partnership on Sexual Minorities at the National Immigrant Justice Center -- told Metro Weekly, "It adds some heft to our requests for prosecutorial discretion in individual cases in which the foreign partner" of a same-sex bi-national couple is seeking a green card because of his or her citizen same-sex partner.

Immigration rights attorney Lavi Soloway: "This development could be a sign that the Obama administration is looking for a way to protect gay and lesbian bi-national couples who are currently barred from the regular marriage-based immigration process by the Defense of Marriage Act."

Concerned Women Are Concernstipated About King & Spalding's "Cowardice"

The Concerned Women for America have bestowed their first ever "Cave, Man" award on King & Spalding chairman Robert Hays.

Yes, the firm which boldly defended Guantanamo Bay detainees apparently finds it inconceivable to defend the American people and federal law. They had no problem treating pro-lifers as mobsters, as they argued in Scheidler v. National Organization of Women, but to defend the traditional definition of marriage is apparently beyond the pale. Their "process" for that "was inadequate"!

(Via - Good As You)

Syracuse Chorus - Down With DOMA

From the Syracuse Gay & Lesbian Chorus.

NRA Fires King & Spalding

The NRA has joined the state of Virginia in firing the Atlanta-based law firm King & Spalding. According to the NRA, the organization has no official position on DOMA.

In a letter dated today to King & Spalding chairman Robert Hays, NRA general counsel David Lehman said the firm's decision was "indefensible" but emphasized that the NRA's action in dropping King & Spalding is "not motivated by any position on the statute itself." The NRA is a "single issue organization" focused on the Second Amendment, Lehman wrote. But he said that in retaining outside counsel, "we expect them to zealously advocate for our interests and not abandon the representation due to pressure from those who may disagree with us."

Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

VIRGINIA: King & Spalding Fired By AG Ken Cuccinelli For DOMA "Weakness"

Notoriously anti-gay Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has fired the Atlanta-based law firm King & Spalding for backing out of the DOMA cases.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has ended his office’s relationship with the law firm that earlier this week said it would not represent the House of Representatives in its case supporting the Defense of Marriage Act. In a letter to Atlanta-based King & Spalding, the state’s top law enforcement official, a Republican, says that the firm’s willingness to drop the House as a client in the DOMA case “was such an obsequious act of weakness” that he sees the need to terminate Virginia’s ties with the firm.

Tony Perkins: Gay Activists Are Terrorists

"This has moved from cultural terrorism to corporate terrorism. That's what this is. Now, back in the 80's and early 90's I worked with the state department in anti-terrorism and we trained about fifty different countries in defending against terrorism, and it's, at it's base, what terrorism is, it's a strike against the general populace simply to spread fear and intimidation so that they can disrupt and destabilize the system of government. That's what the homosexuals are doing here to the legal system." - Hate group leader Tony Perkins, on King & Spalding's DOMA withdrawal.

Just three days ago we were cowards, now we're terrorists. Make up your diseased mind, Miss Perkins.

MSNBC Interviews Binational Gay Couple Facing Deportation