Equality On Trial

Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) announces support for marriage equality, DOMA repeal; Majority Leader Reid supports marriage equality

May 9, 2012

DOMA Repeal Marriage equality

By Scottie Thomaston

UPDATE (Adam): Coverage in the Providence Journal this morning:

WASHINGTON — Hours after President Obama announced a similar change in policy, Sen. Jack Reed said Wednesday that he has decided to come out in favor of gay marriage.

“I’ve been thinking and deliberating about this for many, many months,” said Reed. “I believe it’s appropriate to support same-sex marriage and as a result to support the Respect for Marriage Act.”

Reed thus makes Rhode Island’s all-Democratic congressional delegation unanimous in backing the legislation, which would permit the recognition of same-sex marriage nationwide.

Reed had supported the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act, which let states decline to recognize the validity of civil marriages between gays in other states.

Reed said he was especially persuaded by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. That ruling compared the law, for example, to now-discredited statutes that once forbade interracial marriage or homosexual conduct in some states.

UPDATE: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has just announced his support for marriage equality as well:

“My personal belief is that marriage is between a man and a woman. But in a civil society, I believe that people should be able to marry whomever they want, and it’s no business of mine if two men or two women want to get married. The idea that allowing two loving, committed people to marry would have any impact on my life, or on my family’s life, always struck me as absurd,” Reid said via a statement tonight.

“In talking with my children and grandchildren, it has become clear to me they take marriage equality as a given. I have no doubt that their view will carry the future.

“I handled a fair amount of domestic relations work when I was a practicing lawyer, and it was all governed by state law. I believe that is the proper place for this issue to be decided as well.”

We’ve written before about Senator Jack Reed’s slow evolution on the issue of repealing the Defense of Marriage Act. Despite polls in his state favoring marriage equality and opposing DOMA, Reed took an extremely long time working on articulating a position on the Respect for Marriage Act, the bill that would repeal DOMA.

Today the big news is that the president has announced that he believes gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to get married. This has set things in motion for a lot of changes, and one of those appears to be Senator Reed’s complete evolution on the marriage issue and support for the Respect for Marriage Act:

I support same sex marriage and will cosponsor the Respect for Marriage Act. #MarriageEquality #LGBT

— Senator Jack Reed (@SenJackReed) May 9, 2012

 

Reed is another former supporter of DOMA who voted for it and will now be cosponsoring the bill that will repeal the law. He says the decision comes after thinking over it for months:

“I’ve been thinking and deliberating about this for many, many months,” said Reed. “I believe it’s appropriate to support same-sex marriage and as a result to support the Respect for Marriage Act.”

Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation is now unanimous in its opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act.

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