I count myself among those who have been annoyed with Obama's stance on gay marriage, but today marks an important change in his administration's treatment of the issue. Obama has stated in the past that his personal view of marriage was that it should be between a man and a woman but that he advocated for civil unions so that gays weren't completely denied partnership rights. DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act that his Attorney General has been defending, defines marriage along such lines and essentially makes gay Americans second class citizens.
The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution asserts that it is illegal to deny a specific group (let alone a marginalized group!), their rights and is being used to argue that DOMA is unconstitutional. Obama now agrees with this rationale and has directed his administration to stop defending DOMA in the courts.
Read more here.
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