In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the repeal of the “Defense of Marriage Act,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Wednesday called DOMA an “immoral and discriminatory” law and challenged a key witness, an official with the mammoth Focus on Family group.
In his testimony, Thomas Minnery, Executive Director of Citizen Link, the political arm of Focus on the Family, cited a 2010 federal study when he claimed that children raised by a male-female married couple are happier and healthier than children raised by other families.
But Franken had already done his homework: “I checked the study out,” said Franken. “It doesn’t say what you said it does,” said Franken. Watch:
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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) opened Wednesday’s hearing by saying he called the hearing to “assess the impact” of DOMA law on American families. He said the 1996 law “goes well beyond the harm to a family’s dignity,” harming it economically, health-wise, and in other ways.
Full coverage on Wednesday’s hearing is here.
