Massachusetts continues to pave the way to equality
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Just as it led the charge for same-sex marriage rights, so will Massachusetts lead the charge to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). On March 3, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Boston challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. This is the first, concerted multi-plaintiff legal challenge to DOMA and has been filed on behalf of eight married couples and three surviving spouses from Massachusetts who have been denied federal legal protections that are available to spouses.
Because of Section 3, legally married same-sex couples are excluded from any federal law or program that other married couples benefit from. Same-sex couples are denied spousal protections in Social Security, the federal income taxm federal employees’ and retirees’ benefits, and in the issuance of passports.
In an upcoming report by the Center for American Progress, Ben Furnas and Josh Rosenthal state that the average same-sex couple “will be denied over $8,000 a year in Social Security survivor benefits upon the death of the high-earning spouse after retirement.”
GLAD argues that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional because it violates the federal constitutional guarantee of equal protection and that it is “an unprecedented intrusion by the federal government into marriage law.”
GLAD believes that Gill et al. v Office of Personnel Management may ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court. The link below will take you to the DOMA section of the GLAD web site: