EVERY MARRIAGE MUST BE RESPECTED
Thousands of Connecticut marriages, including mine, are at risk as we await a vote in the United States Senate on H.R. 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act. There is no question that most people are reassured, if not complacent, that liberties and privacy we have grown accustomed to are protected by Connecticut law. Reproductive choice, access to contraceptives, interracial relationships and sodomy are no longer crimes or otherwise unlawful here. Our legislature repealed state laws that had been declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court and in some cases enacted explicit protections.
In 2008, our state Supreme
Court decided that marriage equality was protected by the Connecticut constitution. In 2009, the legislature in a bipartisan vote declared that: “Marriage means the legal union of two persons.” Republican Gov. Jodi Rell signed that bill without hesitation.
So how are Connecticut samesex marriages at risk? In the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas referred to earlier landmark opinions as “clearly erroneous” and he demanded that his fellow justices “correct the error.” If the Senate does not join the House of Representatives in changing federal law, Justice Thomas’ call to “reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents” (i.e., the constitutional ‘right to privacy’ that protects access to contraception, sexual acts between consenting adults and marriage equality) one federal law will remain on the books and become enforceable for the first time since
2015: the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.
You might not be aware of this law. It was passed by a veto-proof majority in a Republican Congress in 1996 and was signed by President Bill Clinton. It reads in relevant part: “No State … shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State … respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State” adding that “the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.” In other words, states won’t have to recognize same sex marriages from other states and the federal government will recognize only opposite sex marriages.
The good news is that the Respect for Marriage Act was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 19 with a bipartisan majority of 267-157 that included 47 Republican yes votes.
The centerpiece of the bill is the repeal of DOMA.
The bad news is that, as with most legislation in recent years, Republicans can block final passage unless 10 of them vote to end a certain filibuster. Sens. Susan Collins, Rob Portman and Lisa Murkowski have committed to supporting the bill, but seven more are needed.
If DOMA were not repealed and the conservative majority on the Court decides to accept Justice Thomas’ invitation to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that declared marriage a substantive due process right for all Americans, married Connecticut same sex couples would instantly
become legal strangers under federal law. The fallout would likely affect Social Security entitlements, federal tax status, military benefits, etc. Worse yet, 35 states have banned same-sex marriage in their constitutions or statutes. Connecticut couples traveling to these states would be unable to claim marriage status and won’t, for example, be treated as “next of kin” in a hospital visit, or as a parent of his or her child. Florida added such a ban to its constitution in 2008, and you can imagine the confusion that would be created for the many Connecticut couples who vacation or retire there.
The fact that 25% of Republican members of Congress voted to repeal DOMA is encouraging; let us hope that as many Republican senators follow their lead. The legal protections and respect that my husband and I and thousands of similar families have enjoyed should not be taken for granted. Make your voice heard if you believe Congress must respect every marriage. Speak out on established rights of privacy that you might have taken for granted, including reproductive choice, intimacy between consenting adults and marriage equality. Vote in November as if your own right to privacy depends on it. It does.