Bill would cut federal benefits for same-sex couples living in non-marriage-equality states; advocates say bill has little chance, targets gay opponent
Randy Weber. left, Donald Brown, right
New legislation filed by anti-gay Congressman Randy Weber aims to prevent the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages in states that don’t recognize their marriages.
Weber, R-Friendswood, filed the State Marriage Defense Act of 2014 on Jan. 9. The measure would require a couple’s place of residency to be verified as one of the 17 states or Washington, D.C. that has marriage equality. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June found Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, requiring the federal government to recognize all same-sex marriages in the country. But the law still allows states to decide whether to allow their gay citizens to marry or not.
Weber said in a statement that the legislation was introduced in an attempt to uphold the 10th Amendment, which allows states to govern themselves on issues unrelated to the federal government.
“For too long, however, the Federal Government has slowly been eroding state’s rights by promulgating rules and regulations through federal agencies,” Weber said. “I drafted the ‘State Marriage Defense Act of 2014’ to help restore the 10th Amendment, affirm the authority of states to define and regulate marriage, as well as, provide clarity to federal agencies seeking to determine who qualifies as a spouse for the purpose of federal law. By requiring that the Federal Government defer to the laws of a person’s state of legal residence in determining marital status, we can protect states’ constitutionally established powers from the arbitrary overreach of unelected bureaucrats.”
The bill has 28 co-sponsors, 11 of which are from Texas, including Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, who will face openly gay veteran Louie Minor in November for his seat. Minor is running unopposed in the Democratic Primary.
The bill has been endorsed by several anti-gay organizations, including the Family Research Council, National Organization for
Marriage, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops.
But it has little chance of passage with a Democratic majority in Congress a few months after the U.S. Senate approved the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Southeast Texas Stonewall Democrats released a statement about Weber’s legislation, saying that “it was not that long ago it was open season on the LGBT community in this area. Politicians still think they can make swipes at folks that live and work in this region without any kind of repercussions for their unfair and discriminatory actions and remarks. No more.
“We do see it as a shot across the bow to the LGBT community,” the statement reads in part. “ Stonewall is here to meet this challenge.”
Jennifer Daniel, chair of Southeast Texas Stonewall Democrats, said the group has thrived since it started last June, and she expects Stonewall to help politicians in the area support LGBT issues and replace the ones that don’t, like Weber.
Daniel said she doesn’t expect the bill to go anywhere. Instead, she said Weber filed it to appeal to his extremely conservative voter base and bring up LGBT issues when one of the Democratic challenges, Donald Brown, is openly gay.
“It’s purely political,” Daniel said. “He’s trying to get the conservatives riled up about the election. … It’s purely a publicity stunt.”
Congressional District 14 spans Southeast Texas form Freeport to Beaumont. While the district is Republican-leaning, Daniel said the issue is voter turnout and Stonewall is helping register voters “so hopefully we can get [Weber] out of office.”
Stonewall endorsed the other Democratic challenger Buck Willis in the race. Daniel said “it was a hard choice” between the two, but the group felt that Willis, who’s an ally, was more qualified.
Buck, medical director at Galveston Clinical Research Foundation, “supports Marriage Equality acts and will work to protect the rights of gays and lesbians in the workplace and elsewhere,” according to his campaign website.
Brown, who owns Silverstone Mortgage, is seeking the endorsement of the Washington, D.C.-based Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a political action committee to elect LGBT candidates.
He decided to run for Congress after seeing the story of a boy in his district have his lunch thrown away because he was 30 cents short.
His main platforms are education and making sure children never go to bed hungry. He also said Weber voting against Hurricane Sandy relief when he represents coastal counties is wrong.
Asked whether Weber’s legislation was a way to gay-bait him, Brown said it was filed “because I have been talking about issues that are weaknesses for him. Because I have the issues on my side, he’s trying to distract the voters of district 14.”
Talking with people in the district, Brown said people aren’t opposed to LGBT equality, but the issues have always been addressed as special rights.
“It’s not that they want to restrict equality,” Brown said. “Once they see that we’re trying to get the same thing that they have, their response is ‘Oh, we’re fine with that.’”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 17, 2014.