Thea Spyer and Edith Windsor
Back in July we reported that a majority of House Democrats from Texas had declined to sign a brief opposing the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act — despite the fact that the Texas Democratic Party had recently added marriage equality to its platform. The brief filed in July was signed by 132 House Democrats, including four of the nine from Texas.
Two months later, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi and 144 other House Democrats filed a similar brief today in another case challenging the constitutionality of DOMA, and this time two more Democrats from Texas have signed on, bringing the total from the Lone Star State to six of nine. It’s worth nothing that today’s brief was filed on the heels of a convention at which Democrats added marriage equality — including opposition to DOMA — to their national platform.
The two Democrats from Texas who did not sign the July brief but signed today’s brief are Reps. Al Green and Silvestre Reyes. The four Texas Democrats who signed both briefs are Reps. Lloyd Doggett, Charlie Gonzalez, Sheila Jackson Lee and Eddie Bernice Johnson. The three Texas Democrats who signed neither brief are Reps. Henry Cuellar, Gene Green and Rubén Hinojosa.
Metro Weekly reports the brief filed today is in the case of Edith Windsor, an 83-year-old lesbian widow who sued the government after she was taxed more than $363,000 on assets that passed to her after the death of her wife in 2009 because the government did not recognize their marriage. The two women first met in 1963 and were married in New York in 2007 after a more than 40-year engagement.
We just wonder if Cuellar, Gene Green and Hinojosa have watched the below video about Windsor’s case.
