Same-sex marriage activists doom DOMA repeal

President Obama came into office supporting repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA allows states to refuse to recognized same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries. The President proposed granting the federal rights of marriage to all same-sex couples in “legally-recognized unions,” marriages, civil unions, domestic partnerships or any other recognition a state offers. Currently, this would cover 14 states.

However, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has pushed aside the President’s proposal and introduced a bill repealing DOMA but only granting federal rights to married same-sex couples. As of January 1, 2010, this would only cover four New England states and Iowa. Congressman Nadler has abandoned his President at the behest of marriage-only activists, groups like Marriage Equality, USA, who believe including anything but marriage would undermine the drive for same-sex marriage.

This has left western LGBT activist upset because Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada have domestic partnerships & Hawaii and Colorado have other forms of recognition. Jeff Sheehy, who worked on San Francisco's 1996 equal benefits ordinance requiring city contractors to extend the equal marital benefits to domestic partnerships, called Nadler’s exclusion of everything but marriage “a mistake.”

Much more significant, however, is the fact that the President's "legally-recognized unions" would have had a better chance of passing Congress. In the public’s mind, legally-recognized unions would appear much more like domestic partnerships which is about fairness, not marriage. This is why domestic partnerships enjoy 55-60% public support. On the other hand, the Nadler Bill has zero chance of passing Congress because it is all about the "M" word and will not get the support it needs to pass because only about 35-40% of American voters support same-sex marriage. Even openly gay Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, no one’s shrinking violet, has refused to co-sponsor Nadler’s bill because it is dead-on-arrival. Members of Congress are aware that same-sex marriage has never won an election while the voters in Washington State passed domestic partnerships by a respectable margin.

Unless Congressman Nadler does some quick back tracking, DOMA repeal is a non-starter in the current Congress despite the President’s support. Of course, introducing a bill with a chance of passage means that the one introducing the bill has to work like hell to get it though Congress. Sponsoring a bill which pleases your donor base but has no chance is much easier because no one really expects results. From Congressman Nadler’s point of view this bill is a win-win situation. He takes the credit, and the contributions, but does not have to do much work for it. (A fact his staff and his supporter will, no doubt, be quick to deny.)

Since 1942 the sitting president's party has lost an average 28 House seats and four senators in midterm elections. In all probability there will be fewer Democrats in the House and Senate in the next Congress sinking DOMA repeal for the foreseeable future, maybe a generation. The LGBT community has Marriage Equality, USA and their allies to thank for this. A sad victory of ideological purity over the mundane efforts to win much needed marital rights because those rights may not be labeled “marriage.”

Update:  December 10, 2009 DC Agenda reported "Rep. Jerrold Nadler said the Respect for Marriage Act, which would overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, won’t pass next year."