WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a law he signed that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
Clinton says the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is incompatible with the Constitution. He says he signed the law in 1996 to avoid legislation that would have been even worse for gays.
AP
In an op-ed column appearing in The Washington Post, Clinton writes that American society has changed. He says he now realizes the law discriminates against gays and provides an excuse for others to discriminate, too.
In 1996, I signed the Defense of Marriage Act. Although that was only 17 years ago, it was a very different time. In no state in the union was same-sex marriage recognized, much less available as a legal right, but some were moving in that direction.
Washington, as a result, was swirling with all manner of possible responses, some quite draconian. As a bipartisan group of former senators stated in their March 1 amicus brief to the Supreme Court, many supporters of the bill known as DOMA believed that its passage “would defuse a movement to enact a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which would have ended the debate for a generation or more.”
It was under these circumstances that DOMA came to my desk, opposed by only 81 of the 535 members of Congress.
[...]
When I signed the bill, I included a statement with the admonition that “enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination.” Reading those words today, I know now that, even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law is itself discriminatory. It should be overturned.
The Obama administration has stopped defending the law in court, and the Supreme Court is expected to take up a challenge to it later this month.
Separately, the high court is also considering whether California’s gay marriage ban should stand.
Related articles:
GLAAD to honor Bill Clinton as 'Advocate for Change' on LGBT rights
'Edie, Edie,' chants a jubilant crowd as Windsor emerges from Supreme Court
High court skeptical of federal marriage law that denies benefits to gay couples
Same-sex military families look to high court to remedy DOMA's injustice
U.S. Supreme Court to release same-day audio recordings of marriage cases
Filed under: Editor's Picks, Newsmakers
Florida teen fighting criminal charges related to same-sex relationship
Linda Harvey: Gay news sites trick kids into becoming gay
Wash. florist who refused flowers for gay couple’s wedding files suit against state
Texas judge enforces ‘morality clause’ to split up lesbian couple
Catholic school: Transgender student must wear girl’s graduation gown
Another Ore. bakery refuses to provide wedding cake for same-sex couple
Graham threatens to pull support from immigration bill if gays are included
Matt Barber tweets homophobic cartoon of gay man tricking Boy Scout into sex
UPDATED: Police call fatal New York City shooting an anti-gay hate crime
Russian police confirm man was tortured to death because he was gay
Parents sue S.C. hospital over child’s gender assignment surgery
Scottish cardinal to atone for sexual misconduct with younger clergy
BREAKING: French president signs marriage equality bill into law
BREAKING: Minn. governor signs marriage equality bill — ‘Love is the law’
Everything is bigger in Texas – even the homophobia
I don’t know that I believe that, but I can’t help but like Clinton. Let’s just get rid of DOMA, please and thanks.
now he is gonna start some shit he never would have been involved in geezzzzzz
man he looks bad
bulllllllshiiiit! he did it to appear as a centrist
As much as he likes BJ’s…I can’t believe he was against gays..lol
BULLSHITTER LIAR!
Well it did not work did it you numb nut
Honestly I believe it. Of course gay rights wasn’t on his agenda, that’s not a secret, but call him whatever you like – he was and is a smart man. He knew times were changing and it wouldn’t be in his best interest to be the president that federally banned marriage equality.
And no, I’m not just too young to have been aware of these issues. My moms have been together 36 years, discussion LGBT rights was of the utmost importance in my home for my entire life. I remember DOMA, and I remember Clinton’s attitudes. I also remember the reality of the times.
Thank goodness we’re moving in the right direction.
All the fat cats make me quirk an eyebrow when it comes to the plausibility of what they say and will do. I’d like to see action. Not words. Action. I’d love for them to realize how fucking stupid banning marriage for anyone is and wrong, but hey, they just plug their ears. Get with the equality and the freedom or just drop the land of the free slogan. It’s free if you fit the criteria apparently.
I like Clinton a lot, but I don’t believe that at all. He just needs to fess up to his mistake and leave it at that.
The only broken promise that angered me about Bill Clinton was his absolute promise to lift the ban on gays in the military, follwed by his capitulation with “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell.”
The good news that came out of all of that was that, for the first time in American history, an elected President was publicly positive about gay people, and it put gay people on every dinner table in the COUNTRY. The dialogue that led us here began there.
He did what made them happy and to get them off his back. Nuff said
I think that’s probably true what he says. At the time, only 14 senators (ALL Democrats) voted against DOMA, Sens Feingold of WI, Kerry, Kennedy of Mass, Boxer, Feinstein of Calif, both Hawaii Akaka & Inouye, Sens, Wyden of Oregon, Robb of Va, Pell of Rhode Island, etc. Very few were willing to put their necks on the line to save us. In 2004, even Sen Feinstein sternly warned the Cty of San Francisco that they were “moving too far and too fast” Even though we hate to think how little our relationships are valued in some states, it was FAR worse back then. Even the moderate states were against the idea of marriage equality! It was a very REAL possibility that they could pass an amendment to the Constitution and get the 3/4 of the state legislatures to sign off on it. They already had the 2/3 vote of House & Senate. It took 30 resounding defeats of marriage equality before we won even one.
He’s full of sh*t but whatever. Point is he’s 100% on side now, and now is what counts.
Revisionist history.
Clay, he is totally right. I remember being quite scared that they would try for an anti marriage amendment at that time. I hated both DOMA and DADT. They were and are anathema to us but as bad as they were/are they kept even worse from happening at that time.
He was interviewed by CBS and explained his stance 2.5 yrs ago. Both houses had enough votes to over ride a veto and push for full LGBT ban http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6888843n.
A perfect description of the POTUS position. Never-ending compromise, butt-kissing and bowing down to the great, white, right menace.
That’s what people forget nowadays in the age of insanely fast movement on this issue.
Prior to Clinton it was actually illegal to BE gay in the military, and they COULD ask you, and if you lied, you had that added to your discharge!
And there was a BIG push to actually make gay marriage illegal. DOMA is bad, and needs to be overturned, but it likely prevented worse!
Politicking at it’s worst, sounds a little bass ackwards to me but kudos to him for recognizing his mistake.
THAT was DADT that he put into effect regarding the MILITARY. DOMA has to do with marriage- civilians…
Im happy he is admitting to his mistake. I dont agree with the law but I have to give props to a man that can admit to his mistake and do something to try to fix it.
If that makes him feel good to give an excuse for what happened under HIS WATCH, so be it. Doesn’t hold much water to me. And I am a Clinton, him, Hillary and Chelsea, fan!
<3 U
like him but he was wrong on DOMA!
Duh..What I should have noted above w/ link was that DADT was 93 and DOMA was 95…The 94 midterm election swung both House and Senate further Right. If you think about it, pulling DOMA off instead of what could have easily turned into a full blown Constitutional ban was a pretty impressive move. Does it suck and need to go? Absolutely! At the time it actually could have ended worse.
I was only 10 when it happened, so I don’t remember much about it, but considering the massive shift in public opinion just in the past five years, I can fully believe that passage of a federal constitutional ban was a legitimate threat. DOMA sucks, it has always sucked, but compared to what could have happened, it is worlds better. It is far easier to overturn a law than an amendment.
Clinton could have just let it turn into law without his signature by waiting 10 days with Congress in session. That’s not what he did.
He sold gays down the river so he could get reelected. This revisionist history is bullshit.
Michael Alexa Dudding: and TAKE the chance of the GOP, putting a FULL CONSTITUTIONAL BAN on gay marriage?…..as much as i HATE “DOMA”, i’m glad he did something to protect gays from that……let’s NOT forget; it was ILLEGAL at 1 point, to even be suupected of being GAY….that could get you JAIL and or DEATH……just look at some of the counteries, who are like that even today…..DOMA NEEDS TO BE FULLY REPEALED…..just like DADT was.
guys, we are forgetting the time period. We had barely 30 percent support then and no visibility, it was the peak of the witch hunt of teachers and officials. I don’t think he sold us out, I think he made it more easily revisable for us; like DADT I think it was a measure of integration and it’s never fun or worthy but I don’t think it shows some sort of alliance against us. Our first assembly was the mattachine and they were almost completely assimilationist.
i know that Bill…. i remember that you made small steps in directions less than perfect because the US was pushing for far worse :) thanks!
Uao bre zlikovci jedni nenormalni,sramoto za sve sto postoji u ovom svetu,kreacijo zla i smrdljiva,ako vam je toliko stalo do toga,vratite se tamo na zapad i u vasu tu prokletu ameriku,”zemlju smrdljive demokratije”,pa tamo radite sta hocete,i govorite i vredjate koga god vi zelite,ali to nemojte da cinitie ovde i u ovoj nasoj slobodnoj i prekrasnoj zemlji,koja je dosta propatila zbog izdajnika i umnobolesnika kao sto ste vi i slicni vama,u zelji da sacuvaju svoje dupe su cak i sami sebe prodali ! Epa dosta je vise sa tim,mars u ameriku i tamo radite sta hocete,mars !
He signed it so he would win a second term. Don’t pee on my leg, Bill, and tell me it’s raining.
whatever like you made a difference the first time cuz now its a problum