DOMA defines marriage as a legal union exclusively between one man and one woman. As such, it is a right-wing insurance policy designed to invalidate state-based advances.
DOMA establishes a state's right to refuse to recognize a marriage lawfully sanctioned in another state. That's tantamount to saying that it is okay for a woman to be allowed to vote in Massachusetts but not in Maine.
DOMA also prohibits same-sex couples from filing joint tax returns, claiming survivors' benefits to Social Security, and inheriting spouses' estates tax-free. In an allegedly free-market society, what could be a surer sign of second-class status than this?
President Obama must make the repeal of DOMA a central priority. Gay and lesbian Americans should not have to wait in the back of the bus for their turn to enjoy their rights.
Related:
Taking gay rights to Obama, A step forward, California’s shame, More 
- Taking gay rights to Obama
You might have seen Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll, seniors at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, around town in the days leading up to November 3.
- A step forward
The nation’s understandable preoccupation with the unfolding economic crisis has overshadowed a significant victory in the battle for same-sex marriage: the Connecticut Supreme Court, on October 10, ruled that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry.
- California’s shame
The politics of division as practiced by lame-duck president George W. Bush at the connivance of his onetime Svengali Karl Rove are not dead.
- State House status
Rhode Island voters, for all their supposed insularity, are an increasingly progressive bunch.
- California matters
For four years, and 10,000 same-sex nuptials, Massachusetts has had a monopoly on gay marriage in the United States.
- After the Question 1 vote
Last Tuesday, Maine became the 31st state to put same-sex marriage to a public vote — and to have it lose.
- Saying their ‘I don’ts’
In case it slipped by one or two of you out there, Maine is a pretty homogenized state overall, even more so than a carton of Oakhurst or Hood milk.
- Fair Share?
On September 10, Boston City Councilor David Scondras wrote a letter to the city’s group-health-insurance director. “We have a non-discrimination policy in this city which includes people who are gay and lesbian,” wrote the city’s first openly gay city councilor.
- Continuing homophobia
Deirdre Fulton's and Shay Stewart-Bouley's comments and Seth Berner's letter on the Marriage Equality Act repeal are insightful. I would add another perspective:
- Granite grind
Much of New England joined the march toward marriage equality this year, but in the comparably conservative Granite State, its legalization has heated up a partisan battle for control of the governorship in 2010, promising that this political war isn't quite over.
- Just the beginning
More than a few people asked us why we are publishing this special section now — now that gay-marriage opponents have filed their People's Veto signatures, now that same-sex marriages will not be taking place at least until after Mainers vote on the issue on November 3.
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