Delaware Senator Chris Coons has
disputed Republican claims that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
does not do harm to gay couples and that Democrats are pandering on
the issue.
DOMA, which was approved in 1996, bars
federal agencies and the military from recognizing the legal
marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
On Thursday, a bill that would repeal
DOMA cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee along a 10-8 party line
vote.
After the vote, Coons hit back at
Republicans on the panel, most of whom said they supported DOMA.
“There were a number of [Republican]
points made that I really struggled with. The suggestion that
progress towards marriage equality does not belong in the long
trajectory of the civil rights movement. That DOMA does not cause
any harm to gay and lesbian committed partners who are recognized as
married by their home states. And that federalism compels us to
continue to enshrine discrimination in federal law through continuing
DOMA. And to me, most pointedly, one suggestion was made that the
Democrats, who moved it forward through committee, were simply
pandering to a special interest group.”
“Equality is not a narrow interest.
Equality is not a special interest. Equality is a fundamental
interest of the American people,” Coons added. (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page.)
(Related: John
Cornyn claims Democrats' support for DOMA repeal is pandering.)