GOP: Gays don't need special legal protections (court hearing on DOMA)

[alp227]

Source: SF Chron

(10-14) 17:51 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- With more than half of Americans in a recent poll accepting same-sex marriage, gays and lesbians need no judicial protection from laws passed by Congress, House Republicans argued Friday in a San Francisco court in defense of a law denying federal benefits to same-sex spouses.

"Homosexuals have a great deal of political power" and are not entitled to the safeguards that courts have established for laws that discriminate against racial minorities or women, attorney Paul Clement said in a filing supporting the Defense of Marriage Act.

The 1996 law bars federal benefits, such as joint tax filings, Social Security survivor payments and immigration sponsorship, to same-sex couples legally married in their states.

House Speaker John Boehner chose Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general, to take over the defense in a series of pending Defense of Marriage Act cases after President Obama announced in February that he considered the law unconstitutional and would no longer defend it.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/14/BANT1LI0F4.DTL

[NMMNG]

1. This, coming from the people who have special legal protections

(DOMA, state bans on same-sex marriage, etc) all to protect them from people who only want the same rights everyone else does.

[Evasporque]

4. How does boner have the power to assign a defense?

[Confusious]

6. He paid for it with tax dollars. nt

[nolabear]

2. I could just scream.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[Beartracks]

5. Weird, 'cause I thought DOMA "protected" hetero unions.

More than half of Americans accept man-woman marriage, so I wouldn't think heterosexuals need judicial protection from laws passed by Congress.

I know: let's afford all marriages the same rights!

====================

[and-justice-for-all]

7. That would be true if everyone was on equal terms....

BUT WE"RE NOT!! DOMEA is federally recognized bigotry. Yet, another area where the Government has no business meddeling in. We should beable to marry whoever we want, without question or debate.