Rep. Robert Dold
Rep. Robert Dold, R-Ill., today (Monday, Feb. 2) signed on as a co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, the bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, according to a statement released by Freedom to Marry.
Dold joins Republican co-sponsors Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Richard Hanna of New York, raising the total to three Republican co-sponsors.
The Respect for Marriage Act was reintroduced on Jan. 6 and would ensure that the federal government respects all valid marriages across every single federal agency.
“This legislation is an important step toward ensuring that the federal government upholds its obligation to afford equal protection for all Americans. Washington should no longer stand in the way of loving unions between two people that have already been legally recognized in states like the one I represent,” Dold said in the statement.
“The growth of support among Republicans for the freedom to marry shows that America is, indeed, ready to turn the page on past discrimination and that it is time for the Supreme Court to bring the country to national resolution,” said Evan Wolfson, president and founder of Freedom to Marry, of Dold’s decision. “Congressman Dold is doing the right thing for his party, as well as for families and the American people.”
Even as marriage equality has swept the nation, legally married same-sex couples face obstacles to obtaining Social Security and veterans’ benefits as mandated by federal law. If a same-sex couple is legally married but lives in or moves to a state that doesn’t respect the marriage, they cannot share in these programs. If passed, the Respect for Marriage Act would fix this inequity with a provision that requires the federal government to respect all legal marriages for the purposes of all federal programs.
