By Hilary White
May 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Obama White House has removed from its website all references to a pledge made by the president to scrap the Bush administration’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Under the heading of “civil rights” the White House website had originally proclaimed that “Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.” In addition, the site said that legislation should be enacted that would extend federal legal rights and benefits to same-sex partners “in civil unions or other legally recognized unions.” The site specified that this included all of “the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status.”
The passage about DOMA has now been completely removed, as has the specific reference to the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits. The site now says, “President Obama also continues to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. He supports full civil unions and federal rights for LGBT couples and opposes a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.”
DOMA was passed into law by President Clinton in September, 1996. It says that no state is required to “treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state.” It also prohibits the federal government from treating same-sex relationships “as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.”
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth asked, in regard to the changes on the White House website, “Is President Obama indicating that repealing a law that protects states from being forced to recognize out-of-state ‘gay marriages’ … is now a low priority for his administration?
“We hope so, given that support for traditional marriage, between a man and a woman, remains strong throughout the country.”
Since its passage, DOMA has been under constant attack by homosexualist groups. In March this year, the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed a federal challenge based on the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. At that time, Ethan Jacobs, writing for the New England homosexual newspaper Bay Windows, noted that the Obama administration had included calls for DOMA’s repeal in a description of the civil rights agenda posted on the White House website on Inauguration Day.
Although Shin Inouye, a White House spokesman, declined at the time to say whether the government would move to defend the law, he reiterated Obama’s commitment to repealing the law. He told Bay Windows, “The Department of Justice is studying this lawsuit. The President believes this country must realize its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect. He has made clear previously that he supports the full legislative repeal of DOMA.”
However, it is unclear if the alterations on the White House website reflect a recent about-face in terms of the Obama Administration’s former committment to repealing DOMA.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Obama Administration Announces Radical Homosexualist Agenda on White House Website
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012109.html