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No Vote On Repealing DOMA In House

23 July 2011
by Bridgette P. LaVictoire

None of us have seriously expected that the House of Representatives would take up the Respect for Marriage Act. After all, the Republicans have to try and hold onto what is left of their base, and at this point, they are just scared that the rest of the country is going to turn their back on them. They are relying upon acts like closing DMV offices in Democratic districts after passing laws requiring voter identification in order for people to vote.

Recently, US House Speaker John Boehner told the Washington Blade ”Congress has acted on this issue some number of years ago, and I think that the Congress acted on [it] in a bi-partisan way. It is the law of the land and should remain the law of the land.”

It is not surprising. Boehner is wasting valuable money in order to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court after parts of it were declared unconstitutional and President Barack Obama abandoned the defense of it on that basis.

Evan Wolfson, the President of Freedom to Marry, has said that he hopes that Boehner will change his mind about the DOMA repeal, and recalled the testimony that happened this week in the Senate. Wolfson said “I hope Speaker Boehner will reconsider his apparent refusal to allow for a vote on repealing the so-called ‘Defense of Marriage Act,’ which civil rights hero, Congressman John Lewis, rightly called a stain on our democracy. Much has changed since 1996 — including the fact that we now have tens of thousands of married same-sex couples, many with children, directly harmed by DOMA’s departure from the traditional federal practice of honoring lawful marriages.”

I wouldn’t count on it. In fact, let us be honest, DOMA is not going to be going down any time soon except by court. Wolfson also said “Just as the Republican sponsor of DOMA then now supports its immediate repeal, so should other members of Congress be permitted to reconsider bad legislation, the unfairness of which was powerfully demonstrated at the Senate hearing yesterday.”

John Boehner is in a very difficult spot. The coalition that has supported the Republicans for so long, which now has its face in the Tea Party, is fractured and there is a lot of infighting. While there are Republicans who could get away with supporting the RFMA in the Northeast, along the West Coast, and in the Midwest, just voting for it would doom the party in the South and Southwest, which is the stronghold of the Republicans.

According to New York Democrat Representative Jarrold Nadler, the sponsor of the RFMA, he feels confident that “we will soon see growing Republican congressional support for repealing DOMA.” This is especially in the wake of marriage equality legislation passing in New York. Nadler also said “A number of House Republicans have told me privately that they feel the same way. This, coupled with the fact that there is now a majority of Americans who support equality and with the recent polling data showing that a majority of Republican voters want GOP leadership to give up their position on this matter, means that it is only a matter of time before we act in a bipartisan manner and repeal DOMA. And, believe me, we will keep pushing to get it done until we have succeeded.”

Of course, Maggie Gallagher, the chair of the National Organization for marriage, said “We applaud Boehner for saying he sees no good reason for wasting time on a vote to repeal DOMA. The House just voted to re-affirm DOMA by a powerful bi-partisan majority in the context of the military.” Gallagher was not courageous enough to appear before the Senate. This was not surprising given the way in which her fellow bigots had their testimony slaughtered by the Senate Democrats.