Thirteen years after the Defense of Marriage Act breezed through Congress with bipartisan support, a series of new federal lawsuits threatens to overturn the 1996 law and force the federal government – and perhaps every state – to recognize “gay marriage.”
WASHINGTON (BP)–Thirteen years after the Defense of Marriage Act breezed through Congress with bipartisan support, a series of new federal lawsuits threatens to overturn the 1996 law and force the federal government – and perhaps every state – to recognize “gay marriage.”
The law may be obscure to many Americans but it’s at the heart of an ongoing cultural and legal battle over the future of “gay marriage” in America. And, while homosexual groups for years shied away from going to court over the matter out of fear of a negative Supreme Court ruling, they now believe they have momentum, and three lawsuits have been filed against the law in the past seven months – two of which have the full backing of the leading “gay marriage” groups. Massachusetts filed one of them.
Complicating matters for the law’s supporters is the fact that the Obama administration – which opposes the Defense of Marriage Act – is in charge of defending it in federal court.
If any of the suits are successful, America would become the eighth country in the world not only to allow “gay marriages” in jurisdictions within its borders but also to recognize them.
Signed by President Clinton in 1996, the law has two parts: 1) it gives states the option not to recognize another state’s “gay marriages” and 2) it prevents the federal government from recognizing such relationships. It passed by margins of 84-15 in the Senate and 342-67 in the House at a time when no state recognized “gay marriage,” although Hawaii was threatening to do so. Since then, six states have legalized it.
“There’s obviously a desire on behalf of the homosexual activists to take down the federal definition of marriage because it stands in the way of their ultimate goal, which is to impose same-sex marriage on the entire country,” Brian Raum, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which opposes “gay marriage,” told Baptist Press.