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Sen. Judiciary hearing on DOMA set for July 20th; Sens. Bingaman and Sanders to co-sponsor Respect for Marriage Act
July 12, 2011
By Adam Bink
DOMA-Count-31
This morning, some good news on a few fronts. We received word from Senate allies that Sens. Bingaman and Udall have signed on as co-sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act, sponsored by Sen. Feinstein, which would repeal DOMA. You may remember that thousands of members of the Courage Campaign, Progress New Mexico and Democracy for New Mexico wrote to Sen. Bingaman, demanding that he support repeal of DOMA (video of the petition delivery can be found here). While Sen. Bingaman took a great deal longer than his colleague, Sen. Udall, to come out in support, in the end he did the right thing. At the same time, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a longtime LGBT ally who voted against DOMA in 1996 as a member of the House of Representatives, also signed on in support. This brings the total number of co-sponsors to 28 and the total number of Senators in support to 29 (Sen. Klobuchar is not a co-sponsor). One by one, that’s how it’s done.
It is also good timing as this morning, the Chairman Leahy announced a hearing titled “S.598, The Respect for Marriage Act: Assessing the Impact of DOMA on American Families”, scheduled for Wednesday, July 20th at 10 AM EST in Washington. Courage and our members will be present, and stay tuned for live coverage of the hearing on Prop8TrialTracker.com.
Update: The graphic at the right side of this blog (and in this post), as well as the permanent whip count to which it links, has now been updated. 31 to go. Thanks to David Henderson in the comments for the reminder.
Having technical problems? E-mail equalityontrial AT couragecampaign DOT org for assistance!
27 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Alan_Eckert | July 12, 2011 at 9:43 am
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2.
Ann S. | July 12, 2011 at 9:53 am
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3.
Bob | July 12, 2011 at 10:46 am
woohooo!!! co-sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act,,,,, way to go you guys,,,, another bill to push,,, another opportunity to man the phone lines, , write letters, talk to senators,,, more honing of lobbying skills,, and actual participation in gov't,,,, go for it,,,, yes we can,,,,,,,, woot woot from Canada,,,,,
4.
David Henderson | July 12, 2011 at 10:53 am
Time to update the image in the sidebar…
5.
Str8Grandmother | July 12, 2011 at 11:10 am
Why not? Nobody thought DADT would be voted out when it was. Let us have high expectations and work towards them.
6.
Maggie4NoH8 | July 12, 2011 at 11:13 am
Way to go! I am very proud of my home state's (NM) senators!!
7.
LIZ | July 12, 2011 at 11:26 am
Wow!! I can't wait!! Equality for all!!!!
8.
Adam Bink | July 12, 2011 at 11:28 am
It is indeed!
9.
Peterplumber | July 12, 2011 at 11:37 am
Senator Herb Kohl is set to retire, presumably after his term runs out in 2012. I hope this is done before that time.
10.
Ed Cortes | July 12, 2011 at 11:38 am
Me, too!
11.
jpmassar | July 12, 2011 at 11:44 am
Windsor (DOMA case) attorney's file motion for summary judgement.
12.
jpmassar | July 12, 2011 at 11:45 am
Reps. Kathy Hochul and Bill Owens are now co-sponsors of H.R. 1116, the corresponding House bill.
13.
Bill S. | July 12, 2011 at 11:46 am
I will be writing a letter to my senator today urging him to support the bill. Senator Reed (D-RI) is not a conservative senator and I am surprised that he has not openly supported the bill like our other senator (Whitehouse D-RI).
14.
karen in kalifornia | July 12, 2011 at 11:59 am
117 cosponsors to the House bill to date.
Rep Brad Sherman is my guy and is on there.
See if your's is here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR01…
15.
Carol | July 12, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Obviously, we need some R votes, as they did in New York. Wouldn't it be wonderful if some of them were to sign on as co-sponsors? Repealing DOMA is one of the most libertarian acts I can think of, so if there are some principled Republican senators out there, here is your opportunity to make your mark!
16.
june | July 12, 2011 at 12:51 pm
I'm about to move to Oklahoma for a job, and both of the senators from there (Coburn and Inhofe) are expressly for DOMA. I just wrote each one a letter asking them to support repeal instead. I'm thinking of having some letter-writing and switchboard-calling meetings once I get settled in OK. It would be great to see some posts on P8TT about the subject of what to do if you live in a state whose senators seem hopelessly opposed to repeal…
17.
AnonyGrl | July 12, 2011 at 1:20 pm
20 of them (my own guy, Tonko, included) are from NY! Yay NY!
18.
Steve | July 12, 2011 at 2:02 pm
You do know that Inhofe is an ultra-rightwing Christian theocrat, right? He absolutely hates gay people. More so than many other Republican senators. He made some ridiculous speech in the Senate, showing a large family photograph and proudly reported that there aren't any gays in his family. He said lots of other disgusting stuff regarding things like DADT. He is a puppet for the lobby group and secret society "The Family" aka "The Fellowship". With them was active in lobbying for Uganda's "Kill the gays" bill.
Don't waste your time with him
19.
Maggie4NoH8 | July 12, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Has anyone noticed, front page and center, on MSN.com, Michael Irvin on the cover of OUT magazine? If you follow the link, there is a nice article as well.
KUDOS to MSN.com for having this front and center!!!
20.
jpmassar | July 12, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Which Senators are the next call targets? Which ones will be the next to support DOMA repeal?
21.
Owen | July 12, 2011 at 3:51 pm
I called my Senator – Barbara Mikulski of the state of Maryland. Her colleague Ben Cardin of Maryland is already a cosponsor, so she needs to be pressured to cosponsor it as well.
Anyone from Maryland should contact her.
22.
Adam Bink | July 12, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Good for you, Bill.
23.
Adam Bink | July 12, 2011 at 4:20 pm
It most certainly would. We'll be looking at one in particular next month.
24.
Adam Bink | July 12, 2011 at 4:22 pm
You know, I've found one of the most useful tactics is confronting those representatives at town hall meetings and really get in their faces. It helps if it's more than one couple. E.g. if you could have one single day where 25 gay couples in OK all drive to Coburn's town hall, and one by one they step to the microphone, the next minute he's asking his staff for details on the bill. Now, that may not be true in Inhofe's case, as Steve articulates above, and Coburn is pretty horrible, but we've found when we've gone after Senators publicly and privately is that the next thing you know, they or their staffs is asking for details on the RMA. It really does grab their attention. Anyway, one idea.
25.
Adam Bink | July 12, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Someone, I don't know if it's you, Owen, e-mailed Mikulski's office and got word back that she supports this. I asked that commenter to send me that e-mail so I can follow up, but never got one. If you hear anything, Owen, would you send it to prop8trial at couragecampaign dot org.
26.
Edwin | July 12, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Hey I know this is not relevant to this issue, but did anyone see this?
http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/6760900/…
27. Prop 8 Trial Tracker &raq&hellip | October 20, 2011 at 11:20 am
[...] DOMA Repeal campaign with Sen. Feinstein. These folks successfully brought Sens. Klobuchar, Kohl, Bingaman, Tom Udall and Mikulski onboard through public efforts, and continue to be active in other states [...]
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