Welch supports repeal of marriage act
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By DANIEL BARLOW VERMONT PRESS BUREAU - Published: September 17, 2009
MONTPELIER – U.S. Rep. Peter Welch is one of 90 House Democrats supporting a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, a mid-1990s law that defines the union as between one man and one woman.
The Democrats unveiled the Respect for Marriage Act at a Washington, D.C., press conference Tuesday, a bill that would repeal a law that blocks same-sex couples from receiving numerous federal benefits.
"It's a matter of fairness," Welch said during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon. "Vermonters have decided that gay and lesbians in the state have the right to get married. There are 1,800 couples in Vermont with civil unions and they deserve the full rights that other couples have."
DOMA, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, creates a federal definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. It also allows individual states to not recognize a same-sex marriage that was conducted in another state.
The main sponsor of DOMA, U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Georgia, has since left the Republican Party and become a Libertarian. He said last year that he regrets DOMA, saying it violates state's rights.
Welch also said the issue comes down to state's rights. Before DOMA was passed, this issue of marriage was left up to individual states to decide, he said. With the introduction of the act, the federal government interfered with that historic right for states to decide, he said.
"Repealing DOMA will put us back on the track that we were on for hundreds of years," he said.
At the time that the bill passed, many observers expected some states to begin legalizing same-sex unions. Four years later, Vermont became the first state in the country to allow gay and lesbian couples to form civil unions; now four states, including Vermont, allow same-sex couples to get married and a fifth, New Hampshire, will begin allowing them in 2010.
Several lawsuits seeking to repeal DOMA have been filed, most notably the state of Massachusetts – the first in the country to legalize same-sex marriage – which sued the federal government over the law earlier this summer.
Beth Robinson, the Vermont attorney who argued the court case leading to civil unions in 2000 and who lobbied lawmakers to pass the same-sex marriage bill this year, said repealing DOMA would open up a host of rights for same-sex couples that they are now being denied.
These rights include receiving spousal survivor benefits under Social Security, taking unpaid sick time for a job to care for a same-sex spouse, and the tax benefits of filing jointly as a couple, she said.
"These are protections that have been denied same-sex couples … protections that heterosexual couples have enjoyed," Robinson said.
Vermont's U.S. senators also support the repeal of DOMA.
U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, an independent, voted against DOMA when a member of the House and continues to support its repeal. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, voted for DOMA 16 years ago, said earlier this year that he regrets the vote.
"We don't need it now because we demonstrated the states can make up their own mind," Leahy said. "California voted no. Vermont voted yes."
Robinson said she is hopeful that the DOMA repeal will find support in Congress, but she says the priority for gay and lesbian activists at the moment is passage of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which would make it illegal to discriminate against employees who are gay, lesbian or transgender (the bill includes an exemption for religious organizations).
Welch is also a supporter of that bill in the U.S. House.
"We expect hearings to begin in the next few weeks," Robinson said. "That's a bill that we think can be passed this year."
daniel.barlow@rutland herald.com
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