The Issues:
Marriage Equality
Anti-Marriage Legislation

DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT

In 1996, fearing a final decision by Hawaii's Supreme Court in that state's marriage equality case, foes of marriage equality in Congress acted to implement the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).   DOMA passed overwhelmingly, on an 85-14 Senate vote and a 342-67 House vote. Senators Sarbanes and Mikulski voted in favor of DOMA, as did then-Congressman Robert Ehrlich. President Clinton signed DOMA into law.

DOMA stated two things:  

  • It defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman for federal purposes
  • It said states did not have to recognize marriages between same-sex couples performed in other states.

At the same time, many states began to implement their own DOMAs. Statewide DOMAs, or Defense of Marriage Act, are laws that declare marriage as a union between a male and female only. Some of the 37 states with DOMAs have also amended their state constitutions to redefine marriage.

To see a map of statewide discriminatory marriage laws in PDF, click here.

Maryland is one of only 13 states without a "defense of marriage act."


However, a section of the Maryland Family Code states that "only a marrage between a man and a woman is valid in this State."

FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT

As LGBT Americans have made increased gains towards equal rights under the law, foes of equality have stepped up their efforts to suppress our civil rights movement.   Many legal scholars believe that, when challenged, the federal Defense of Marriage Act may be declared unconstitutional under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which requires states to recognize judicial proceedings from other states. Fearing this outcome, ultra-conservatives, who are ironically often champion states' rights, are pushing a federal marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would limit the rights of states to regulate marriage.

The Federal Marriage Amendment states:

Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.

A constitutional amendment requires a vote by 2/3 of both the Senate and the House, as well as ratification of 3/4 of U.S. states within seven years after the date of the amendment's submission for ratification.

Civil rights advocates are dismayed at the prospect of have discrimination written into the U.S. Constitution, which has only been amended to expand individual rights, not to limit them (the one exception is Prohibition, which was, of course, repealed). Furthermore, the anti-gay amendment could ban any protections under the law for gay and lesbian couples. The proposed amendment negates the role of the judicial branch of government, which has provided America with some of its most important civil rights decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education, Loving v. Virginia, and Lawrence v. Texas, to name just a few.

To read about anti-family legislation in Maryland, visit Equality Maryland's legislative center.

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