Progress On Marriage

“After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny.

The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President’s determination.”

With these words our nation’s Attorney General, Eric Holder announced that President Obama and his Justice Department had come to the conclusion that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act does not meet constitutional requirement and this government will not defend it in court.

Section 3 is the section that defines the terms “marriage” and “spouse” and which says that legal marriage is only possible between opposite sexes.

This is not insignificant reversal of course for the administration. Late last year the President admitted that he was struggling with the issue of Gay Marriage and he understood the argument in favor of it but he also understood that the nation may need more time. I find it hard to believe that someone as sophisticated in his thinking as Barack Obama is actually struggling with gay marriage. There is no doubt however that he is struggling with the politics and the political logistics for doing the right thing. I don’t have any insider information so that is just so minor pop psychology on my part.

Meanwhile a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner had this to say.

“While Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending, the President will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation."

The Speaker’s mouthpiece did not say when he thought an appropriate time would be to grant full rights to all of this nation’s citizens. Please note that the GOP leadership has yet to introduce one piece of legislation that will create jobs so for him to throw that phony issue at the President is disingenuous at best and yet it is typical of the Republican Leadership for the last 26 months.

Should I be hopeful that one day soon my guy will be able to make and honest man of me? We have spent the last 28 years waiting together; I suppose we can wait a tad longer. But, not too much longer, my slow burn is beginning to gather some heat.