A Little Respect

I rarely discuss politics here on my blog, but I'm going to take a moment tonight to talk to my fellow U.S. residents.

This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take a vote on the Respect for Marriage Act. This legislation is designed to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the law passed in 1996 that defines and restricts marriage in the U.S. at the federal level to "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife."

This may be one of the few laws on the books designed to legally force a group of Americans into a state of second-class citizenship. So long as it remains in effect, any victories in forward-thinking (or, more accurately, non-archaic thinking) states to legalize gay marriage are essentially hollow ones. While the Defense of Marriage Act remains in effect, these married couples enjoy none of the legal benefits of their union at a federal level:

They can't file taxes jointly. They're not able to collect survivor benefits for each other's Social Security if one dies. No green card can be obtained to allow one spouse from a foreign country to avoid deportation. I won't go on, because I've read a figure that puts the number of federal rights conferred by marriage at over 1,100 specific items. That's over 1,000 benefits every other married couple likely takes for granted.

If the Respect for Marriage Act passes this committee, it will proceed to a vote in the Senate at large. The best case is that it will pass there (and in the House of Representatives), and the prejudicial law will be struck down. In any case, a vote will force any bigoted members of Congress to go publicly on record with their intolerance and face the consequences; even that would be some step forward.

To this end, the Human Rights Campaign is dedicated to supporting the Respect for Marriage Act. Maybe you can't donate time or money to their efforts. But surely you can do this:

The HRC is collecting signatures for a petition to be delivered to Committee members in advance of the vote. Please take a moment and go sign their petition. Seriously, it won't take more than about 15 seconds, tops.

We now return to the lightweight blather normally associated with this blog. Thank you for your time.