Tag: DOMA

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Impact of DOMA decision – Binational couples and immigration

Today’s ruling by the US Supreme Court on the unconstitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act will have sweeping effects on many levels for married gay and lesbian couples. Among those will be the ability to apply for a green card for foreign national spouses.

Via Immigration Equality:

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling striking down a core provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), lesbian and gay Americans will now be eligible to apply for green cards on behalf of their foreign national spouses, the organization Immigration Equality announced today. The court ruled today, in United States v. Windsor, that Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibited the federal government from conferring benefits to married same-sex couples, is unconstitutional. That provision of the law made it impossible for lesbian and gay couples to receive immigration benefits, including green cards.

“At long last, we can now tell our families that yes, they are eligible to apply for green cards,” said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality. “Many of our families have waited years, and in some cases decades, for the green card they need to keep their families together. Couples forced into exile will be coming home soon. Americans separated from their spouses are now able to prepare for their reunion. Today’s ruling is literally a life-changing one for those who have suffered under DOMA and our discriminatory immigration laws.”

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President Obama reacts to SCOTUS decisions on marriage equality

President Barack Obama reacted Wednesday to the Supreme Court’s decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and invalidating Proposition 8 by releasing the following statement:

I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. This was discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it. We are a people who declared that we are all created equal – and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

This ruling is a victory for couples who have long fought for equal treatment under the law; for children whose parents’ marriages will now be recognized, rightly, as legitimate; for families that, at long last, will get the respect and protection they deserve; and for friends and supporters who have wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and have worked hard to persuade their nation to change for the better.

So we welcome today’s decision, and I’ve directed the Attorney General to work with other members of my Cabinet to review all relevant federal statutes to ensure this decision, including its implications for Federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly.

On an issue as sensitive as this, knowing that Americans hold a wide range of views based on deeply held beliefs, maintaining our nation’s commitment to religious freedom is also vital. How religious institutions define and consecrate marriage has always been up to those institutions. Nothing about this decision – which applies only to civil marriages – changes that.

The laws of our land are catching up to the fundamental truth that millions of Americans hold in our hearts: when all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.

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Bryan Fischer- It will be unconstitutional if DOMA is declared unconstitutional

Bryan Fischer, of the hate group American Family Association, says states should ignore the SCOTUS rulings on marriage equality if DOMA is struck down:

Anything short of upholding DOMA, anything short of upholding Prop 8 in California will be a setback for the rule of law, it will be a setback for a constitutional form of government; in fact you can just eliminate the first three words of the Constitution: “We the people.” That will be utterly meaningless if the Supreme Court does not uphold Prop 8 and does not uphold DOMA, period. Anything short of that and the American people have been robbed of the capacity and the right and the authority to be a self-governing people.

…

If the states were to do it, the thirty states that have marriage amendments say, ‘fine, the Supreme Court has issued its ruling, we’re going to ignore it, they have exceeded their authority, we have no obligation. In fact, if we recognize their ruling, we give credence to it, then we are violating the Constitution because the Constitution gives them no authority to do that to us so we have compounded their unconstitutional act with an unconstitutional act of our own.

(via JMG)

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Marriage Equality “Decision Day” rallies all over the USA

At United For Marriage, they have compiled an interactive map showing locations for “Decision Day” rallies regarding the SCOTUS marriage equality decisions to be released tomorrow morning.

In Las Vegas, folks will be meeting at the new Gay & Lesbian Community Center at 5pm.

Click here for Las Vegas details.

Click here to check for a rally near you.

(via JMG)

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Cathy and Catriona – The DOMA Project

Cathy and Catriona met in 2006 while trekking in the Himalayas.

Now mothers to a son from Guatemala and two daughters from Haiti, they were devastated earlier this year when Cathy’s second work visa was denied. All they knew was that they would do anything to keep their family together despite the unjust Defense of Marriage Act that threatens to tear them apart.

Cathy and Catriona married in May 2012.

Their green card application can only be approved if DOMA is struck down by the Supreme Court.

From The DOMA Project

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Anti-gay Christian groups plan to ignore SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality if they don’t like it

A coalition of Christianist and anti-gay groups has come together to create and sign The Marriage Solidarity Statement, which basically says whatever the US Supreme Court decides regarding marriage equality they plan to ignore it.

Kind of like ostriches with their heads in the sand. “This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening.”

Here’s just a bit of what these anti-gay folks have to say:

“If the Supreme Court were to issue a decision that redefined marriage or provided a precedent on which to build an argument to redefine marriage, the Supreme Court will thereby undermine its legitimacy. The Court will significantly decrease its credibility and impair the role it has assumed for itself as a moral authority. It will be acting beyond its proper constitutional role and contrary to the Natural Moral Law which transcends religions, culture, and time.”

The Marriage Solidarity Statement ends with these words: “As Christians united together in defense of marriage, we pray that this will not happen. But, make no mistake about our resolve. While there are many things we can endure, redefining marriage is so fundamental to the natural order and the true common good that this is the line we must draw and one we cannot and will not cross.”

It should be noted, that the provisions of the U.S. Constitution grant the high court judicial power in “all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution,” and the 14th Amendment guarantees “equal protection of the laws” for all persons.

The list of signees includes the usual suspects, like designated hate group leaders Family Research Council president Tony Perkins and Traditional Values Coalition chairman Rev. Louis Sheldon, Tea Party activist Ben Carson, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R), former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Focus on the Family founder Rev. James Dobson, birther Joseph Farah, and disgraced Abramoff scandal figure Ralph Reed.

The irony of the coalition’s name is that what THEY call “Freedom” would restrict the liberty of gay and lesbian Americans.

Of course, it goes without saying you need a civil marriage license to basically have a marriage recognized. If DOMA and Prop 8 fall in the next week, marriage will be expanded to include gay and lesbian couples on more than one level.

So there.

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While we wait on SCOTUS – cool interactive marriage equality map

While we wait for the US  Supreme Court to render it’s decisions – most probably on Monday, June 24th – the New Yorker has come up with an online interactive map where you can click on a “decision” and see how each option would affect marriage equality in the US.

Take a look by clicking here.

(h/t JMG)