Under the bewildering moniker “Respect for Marriage Act,” legislation that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), was introduced on Tuesday into the House by Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York and Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis) and Jared Polis (D-Col) along with 91 co-sponsors.

DOMA has been the protection that has allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages from other states and prevents federal recognition of gay marriage.  It has allowed states to adopt amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman without any threat that the federal government can over run them and therefore is seen by citizens who value traditional marriage as a most important wall of defense.

Thus DOMA is seen as the wall to scale to attain same-sex marriage and its strength will have to withstand several kinds of battering from various sources moving forward.

The legislation, H.R. 3567, if passed, would mandate the acceptance of same-sex marriages in every state, so long as they were performed in states where these unions are legal.

“In every state where the people have been allowed to vote on marriage, the people have made their voice clear that they stand for traditional marriage,” said Maurine Proctor, President of Family Leader.  “Lawmakers seem to be in service to their ideology instead of the values of the people in pushing the repeal of DOMA.”

While the repeal of DOMA remains a high priority on the homosexual agenda, the influential and openly gay Congressman Barney Franks, D-Mass, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, are not supporting the bill at this time as they see two other bills as having a higher priority for the homosexual community.

ENDA  (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act), and a repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’  (the military ban on openly gay troops)  will be on the agenda this year with hearings on ENDA beginning next week.  Social conservatives, however, say that the passage of ENDA would also profoundly affect marriage and render much of DOMA worthless.
DOMA is also being fired upon in two major lawsuits in Massachusetts and California, each with a different emphasis. In the Massachusetts lawsuit the state claims that the federal government violates the constitutional rights of its citizens by treating married heterosexual couples differently than married homosexual couples.  In the California lawsuit, championed by David Boies and Ted Olson, the issue is equal protection under the law.