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Health & Fitness

Prop 8 and DOMA: We Are Making History

This week, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Prop 8 and DOMA. One Iowa Executive Director Donna Red Wing discusses the historic impact the rulings will have on Iowa and beyond.

This week, we are making history. Whether you are sharing your story of why marriage matters to you or travelling to Washington, D.C., to support equality for all, we are making history together. 

On March 26 and 27, the Supreme Court of the Unites States will hear oral arguments challenging the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (United States v. Windsor) and California's Proposition 8 (Holllingsworth v. Perry). Their rulings, expected in June, will have an extraordinary impact on the lives of loving and committed gay and lesbian couples; and will determine whether we have the same protections and opportunities of marriage that are enjoyed by other legally married Americans.

Let’s begin with the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which limits the recognition of marriage for federal and inter-state purposes as the legal union of one man and one woman. In 1996, DOMA passed both houses of Congress with the House passing it 342-67, and the Senate on an 85-14 vote.  President Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law nearly 17 years ago on September 21, 1996. Here are the scenarios we face:

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  • If the U.S. Supreme Court were to rule against DOMA, then legally married gay couples would receive federal recognition, tax incentives, and benefits that other legally married couples receive including social security benefits and veteran’s benefits. It would NOT require states to legalize marriage that has not already done so.
  • If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t overturn DOMA, then gay and lesbian couples across the country will continue to be treated differently and will be excluded from the protections and security afforded to other legally married couples. 

For more information about the case challenging the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, please visit our friends at Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD). 

Proposition 8 is California’s marriage ban that passed in 2008 just six months after California extended the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian couples. Here’s what could happen:

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  • If the Supreme Court strikes down Proposition 8 with a broad ruling, the constitutionality of all marriage bans—including any potential marriage ban in Iowa—would be called into question.
  • More likely is a narrow ruling that would apply only to the case in California and would mean that gay and lesbian couples in California could get married as early as Summer 2013.
  • Or, the Supreme Court could uphold Proposition 8 in an opinion that rules that marriage bans do not violate the Constitution.

For more information about the case challenging Proposition 8, California’s marriage ban, please visit our friends at Americans for Equal Rights (AFER)

As Iowans who have simultaneously enjoyed the freedom to marry in our state and have been denied the more than 1,100 federal rights and privileges of marriage including the recognition of our marriages in other states, we look forward to decisions that will forever change the national narrative on marriage.  We look forward to broad rulings that will recognize that marriage is, for us and for our families, about equal protection under the law.

Take Tom and John for example. Tom and John married in 2009 and have been together for over 13 years. John is a lifelong Des Moines resident and works as a Remote Engineer for Clear Channel Radio. Tom grew up in Garwin, and works for the Iowa Department of Public Safety. They met in September of 1998 and married over a decade later in Iowa on May 1, 2009, after the Varnum decision. They told us that what scares them most is living out their later years together under DOMA. What do they do if they need help from social security and are denied because the federal government does not recognize their commitment and their legal marriage? These are very real concerns that could be alleviated if DOMA is gone.

Closer to home, if the Supreme Court rules as we hope it does, when I marry my partner of 26 years this fall, our marriage will be recognized, even if we cross the Iowa border into Missouri.  When we file our taxes we will no longer be compelled to file our state taxes as a married couple and our federal taxes as single, as if we were legal strangers to one another. If we vacation in a non-marriage state and one of us is ill, then the other will no longer be a stranger under the law. We will no longer be denied the protections and securities of marriage that so many other couples take for granted.

Already this year we have seen great movement forward. The American Academy of Pediatrics now supports marriage equality for the benefit of children.  National and local conservative leadership has begun to speak out in favor of marriage. Faith communities are having the meaningful and often difficult conversations moving this issue forward in deliberate and compassionate conversations. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll shows a majority of Americans, at 58 percent, believe that it should be legal for same-gender couples to marry.  Only 36 percent oppose marriage equality. We are moving forward and making history.

And so here in Iowa, in the Heartland, we are optimistic. The State Supreme Court of Iowa did the right thing on April 3, 2009 with its unanimous ruling in Varnum v. Brien extending the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian couples in Iowa. We hope that on both DOMA and Proposition 8, we can look forward to an equally historic ruling, a ruling that will forever change the lives of American families and that will assure equal access to marriage and equal treatment of existing marriages.

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