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MA gay marriage fight heads to Washington
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As Californians ready for a legal challenge to Proposition 8, gay marriage advocates here in Massachusetts are staging a fight of their own. This week, fifteen gay people filed a class action law suit against the United States government, stating that the equal marriage rights extended to them in Massachusetts are not recognized on a federal level; thus being an unconstitutional rights violation.
Six homosexual couples and three widowed gay men, all married in Massachusetts, claim that the federal government has denied them essential benefits such as widow's pensions, military benefits, or interstate health insurance coverage. The Associated Press reports that among the plaintiffs is Dean Hara, the husband of former MA US Rep. Gerry Studds. Studds was the first openly gay United States Congressman. He and Hara married in 2004, and Studds died in 2006. Hara is being denied government pension benefits.
The main claim of the suit suggests that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a violation of basic human rights. The act passed through congress in September, 1996, nearly ten years before same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. DOMA states that the federal government need not recognize a same-sex union, even if the marriage is legal in any particular state. It also allows states to deny claims based on marriage in other states if that state has different restrictions on marriage.
In 2004, same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. Since that time, gay marriage was also legalized in California and Connecticut. Voter-driven Proposition 8 overturned gay marriage in California by a narrow margin during the 2008 national elections. Since that time, gay couples in California have teamed with activists nationwide to take on Prop 8. The California Supreme Court system is currently being challenged to recognize the thousands of same-sex couples legally married during the window of legalization. While same-sex marriage remains a preserved right in Massachusetts, the aforementioned couples are taking the fight for equal marriage as far as they can in order to become recognized beyond state borders.
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