“As a Member of the Judiciary Committee, it is my intention to introduce legislation that will once and for all repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
My own belief is that when two people love each other and enter the contract of marriage, the Federal government should honor that.
I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It was the wrong law then; it is the wrong law now; and it should be repealed.”
Feinstein hadn't actually been a huge supporter of marriage for LGBT people, at least until she came out against Prop 8 and even made an ad against that initiative. So the fact that she's introducing it is big news in itself. I'm happy the bill is being reintroduced in the Senate but I don't know what its prospects are.
The Defense of Marriage Act (so-named because it 'defends' marriage against gay people, you see) deals with somewhere around 1,138 marriage rights. The law says that the only valid definition of 'spouse' under federal law is someone in an opposite sex relationship. Some of the rights denied to LGBT people include:
# Right to benefits while married:
* employment assistance and transitional services for spouses of members being separated from military service; continued commissary privileges
* per diem payment to spouse for federal civil service employees when relocating
* Indian Health Service care for spouses of Native Americans (in some circumstances)
* sponsor husband/wife for immigration benefits
# Larger benefits under some programs if married, including:
* veteran's disability
* Supplemental Security Income
* disability payments for federal employees
* medicaid
* property tax exemption for homes of totally disabled veterans
* income tax deductions, credits, rates exemption, and estimates
* wages of an employee working for one's spouse are exempt from federal unemployment tax
As I've written before, it costs a whole lot of money to be gay in this country, and that's largely because of this law. Whether or not Congressional repeal is successful, the law needs to go away.