Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
James Esseks speaking: "I want to just a few words about what the Defense of Marriage Act does.
In our federal system we know that the federal government doesn't marry
people the states marry people.
But we also know that
whether you're married or not makes a difference in a lot of different federal
contexts. In fact there over eleven hundred different federal laws
that depend in some way or another and what you married or not.
Your Social Security benefits and your survivor benefits change based on whether
married or not.
Whether you get family medical leave to take care of your spouse depends on
whether the federal government recognizes that your spouse is your spouse.
Veterans benefits change, yes taxes change as well.
At the same time that they're all those different context where marriage makes a
difference there are hundreds thirty thousand married same-sex couples in
United States today.
What DOMA says is that it requires the federal government to treat those
hundred and thirty thousand married same-sex couples as unmarried each of
those eleven hundred different federal contexts.
So that's what caused what happened to Edie to happen. She mistreated as
unmarried despite her forty four years together with
the woman who became her spouse.
So Edie and Thea spent four decades together
in good times and bad in sickness and in health
just like any other married couple.
And for the federal government to pretend that their marriage didn't exist
is unfair
it's un-American
and it's unconstitutional."
Donna Leiberman, Executive Director of NYCLU: "Hi I'm Donna Leiberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union
and I'm proud to stand here today as part of Team Edie Windsor
to topple of the Defense of Marriage Act.
My state, the state of New York
respects the rights of all couples
straight or gay to marry.
But so long as DOMA is on the books
these marriages are not truly equal.
The federal government
treats New York's lesbian and gay families
as if they don't even exist.
It's time to put an end to DOMA and that two tiered system of marriage it has forced
on our state.
And it's time to make sure
that the federal government
treats the marriages
of all New Yorkers
with the dgnity
and respect and equality
they deserve.
The federal government
should never again
be allowed to reduce
the love of a married couple
like Edie and Thea
to the legal status
of strangers.
Thank you.
Go to aclu.org/DOMA