Disclosure: I am a man who married another man in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 2004, and I want my spouse to get my Social Security check when I die.
Where We Are Today
Renewed legislative and political drama is now unfolding around the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 15 year-old law that many Americans may not even have known was on the books. As conservative pundits and Republican politicians, including a wide field of Republic presidential hopefuls, fling fallacious attacks at President Obama on account of his recently announced policy on DOMA, it’s worth taking a step back and considering the history of this measure.
How We Got Here
You may be surprised to learn that DOMA was signed into law not by a conservative Republican president like Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, or George W. Bush, but rather by that bulwark of the liberal left-wing Hollywood media conspiracy, Bill Clinton.
Good for the Gays
Indeed, DOMA was supposed to be good for the gays. Back in 1996, none of the 50 United States recognized same-sex marriage. In 1989, Denmark had become the first country to grant any kind of legal recognition to a class of same-sex unions called “registered partnerships.” Marriage equality was high on the legislative agenda of gay rights activists, but it efforts to advance same-sex marriage would not bear fruit for years to come.
Gay Marriage Jitters
Anti-gay Americans began to get nervous in 1993, when the Hawaii State Supreme Court ruled that the provision of the state’s domestic relations law limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples was unconstitutional unless the state could present a compelling state interest justifying the same-sex marriage ban.
Defining Marriage
In fact, 45 out of the 50 states had domestic relations laws that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. If a constitutional challenge succeeded in Hawaii, it might mean the death of traditional marriage nationwide! Thus, in 1995, as Sweden and Hungary joined Norway in legalizing same-sex unions, Utah became the first state to pass a new law explicitly banning same-sex marriage: the very first so-called Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.
Allaying Gay Marriage Fears
In response to these developments, the Clinton administration began seeking a policy that would preserve the flexibility of individual states to determine their own policy on same-sex marriage. As you can imagine, in the wake of the pro-gay decision in Hawaii and the proliferation of same-sex union laws in Europe, there was impassioned talk on Capitol Hill, and among right-wing, anti-gay pundits, of an amendment to the U.S. constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. If that came to pass, no state would be able to legalize same-sex marriage. How could the gay-friendly Clinton administration find a way to preserve the states' right to determine their own marriage policy, while alleviating the anti-gay backlash that was looming in Congress?
Article comments
1 - handyguy
So we have Bill Clinton to thank for both Don't Ask Don Tell and DOMA? With friends like him, who needs enemies like the Family Research Council.
2 - Michael Broder
Exactly. On the other hand, it's important to recognize that both DADT and DOMA were supposed to be "good for the gays," even though they both backfired terribly.