Nationwide Defense of Marriage Act Protest
Saturday, January 10 at 11:30 am
Historical Plaza behind Records Building
509 Main St. in downtown Dallas
Just ten days before Barack Obama is sworn in as the next president of the United States, Queer people across the country will be protesting against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Let's send a message to the future president that the Queer community is resolutely opposed to this discriminatory piece of federal legislation. We will also demand that the purportedly most GLBT friendly president-elect in history use his new political weight to repeal DOMA along with taking other pro-Gay action.
The Federal Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996, takes away Queer people's civil rights in two ways. First, it defines marriage on a federal level as between a man and a woman. Because of this, even those same-sex couples that are married in Massachusetts or Connecticut, do not have access to federal benefits such as immigration and tax breaks. DOMA also exempts same-sex marriages from the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the US Constitution. This means that a marriage performed between two people of the same sex in a state that recognizes marriage equality does not have to be recognized in a state where Gay and Lesbian's civil marriage rights are denied.
By choosing Rick Warren to preside over the invocation at the presidential inauguration, Obama has made himself clear that Queer equality does not factor very highly into his list of priorities. He seems more eager to placate religious extremists than to stand up for an oppressed minority group. To remedy this, GLBT people have to keep the heat in the streets and on Obama to not only repeal DOMA but to support marriage equality and a whole host of other pro-Gay initiatives. Civil rights have never been won by taking a polite backseat approach. Like all other civil rights movements, our rights will be won, not bestowed upon us by our benevolent leaders.
While the president-elect is on record as being on our side on the DOMA issue, he still asserts his opposition to marriage equality by saying, "I do not support gay marriage. Marriage has religious and social connotations, and I consider marriage to be between a man and a woman". We can do better. From day 1 of his presidency we will be demanding that Obama stand up for full marriage equality.
Queer Liberaction is an organization dedicated to struggling for the civil rights of GLBT people. We use direct action activism to directly, visibly and publicly confront homophobia along with organizations, institutions, groups or individuals who support or promote discrimination toward the Queer community.
Check out the Dallas Voice's article on this demonstration here.
