The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest gay rights advocate, has begun a campaign urging the
GOP-led House not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the
Clinton-era law that bans federal agencies from recognizing the legal
marriages of gay and lesbian couples and allows states to ignore such
marriages from other states.
President
Barack Obama said last week that he believes parts of the law are
unconstitutional, which prompted Republican House leaders to
announce they would defend the law in court.
HRC's
online petition urges lawmakers to repeal the law, not defend it:
“Congress should be focused on helping Americans, not hurting them,
I ask you to reject any attempts by Republican leaders to waste
taxpayer dollars on defending this unconstitutional law in court.”
“We're all prepared for [Republicans]
to intervene in some way,” Michael Cole-Schwartz, an HRC spokesman,
told POLITICO.com. “The question is how do they do it, how do they
roll it out, and what kind of political hay they want to make of it?”
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on
Monday joined House Speaker John Boehner in promising action to
defend the 15-year-old law. Cantor
said lawmakers would respond on how they planned to fill the legal
void on Friday.