A steady, legal assault on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is underway in Washington, DC.
On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) led 132 Democrats in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in a federal court in Boston where civil rights groups are challenging DOMA on behalf of two married couples who want the military to recognize their marriages.
DOMA prohibits gays and lesbians who work for the military to receive the same marriage benefits ensured to same-sex couples by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The same federal court ruled DOMA unconstitutional last year.
“These couples are in long term, committed, and legally recognized marriages, and the military should not be forced to turn its back on them because the federal government refuses to recognize their families,” said Aubry Sarvis, the director of plaintiff group the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday began debating the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would overturn DOMA. All ten Democrats on the committee are co-sponsors of the bill, and debate will continue next week.
The 1996 law defines marriage as between a man and a woman and prevents states and government groups from being required to recognize same-sex marriages. A dozen lawsuits against DOMA are underway in several states.
The brief filed by Pelosi and her allies argues that Congress acted without caution when it passed DOMA and failed to take into consideration issues surrounding the minority status of gays and lesbians. The brief also claims DOMA is unconstitutional and there is not legitimate federal interest in denying married gay and lesbian the legal security of recognition under federal law.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.