Bush Administration Lauds House's Passage of Marriage Protection Act
by Bill Fancher and Jenni Parker
July 28, 2004
(AgapePress) - The White House has thrown its weight behind the latest effort to defend traditional marriage, the Marriage Protection Act (MPA). The bill, recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, limits the ability of activist judges to redefine marriage. Meanwhile, same-sex couples married in Massachusetts continue to attack other states' Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) laws through the courts.
The Bush administration has left little doubt about where it stands on the MPA. White House spokesman Tim Goeglein says the administration "strongly supports" the House's passage of the Act, which is designed to ensure that federal courts cannot invalidate DOMA laws. Moreover, he adds that the Bush administration is working vigorously to defend DOMA against legal challenges and "to fully protect marriage from activist judges, including activist state court judges."
"The president believes that no state should be forced to recognize the same-sex marriage entered into in another state," Goeglein notes. He says the Bush administration is also continuing to urge Congress "to pass and to send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
FBI Same-Sex Snafu Puts Federal, State Governments at Odds
Meanwhile around the nation, as approval of homosexual marriage and same-sex domestic partner benefits by activist judges and other officials muddy the waters of policy from state-to-state, federal policy comes down clearly on the side of the traditional definition of marriage. A recent case in Hartford, Connecticut, clearly illustrates this.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently rescinded health benefits it says were given to a lesbian agent's same-sex partner by mistake. An FBI spokesman told the Associated Press that the initial approval of benefits for Katy Gossman's partner was the result of an oversight and that the U.S. government does not allow same-sex spousal benefits.
Agent Gossman and her partner Kristin were married in Massachusetts. According to an AP report, the FBI employee then sent a copy of her marriage license to the Bureau's Washington, DC, headquarters, along with a request for health insurance coverage for Kristin, who was listed on the agent's paperwork as her spouse. Gossman said the New Haven office even called the Washington office to give them a "heads up."
Gossman's "spouse" was briefly listed as being covered by the federal agency's employee health plan. But shortly after the mistake was discovered, the agent received an e-mail message telling her that Kristin was being removed from the health plan. The "Gossmans" have not decided whether they will contest that decision, but they are among eight couples who have filed a lawsuit challenging a 1913 Massachusetts law that has been used to block other out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in that state.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told AP that his state's law does not permit same-sex marriages, but he did not comment on whether the state would recognize homosexual couples' marriage licenses that were issued in Massachusetts. Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts has stated that all homosexual marriages involving out of state couples would be declared void.
This sort of legal controversy has been anticipated by many of those who, like President Bush, support a Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) to enshrine the "union of one-man and one-woman" definition of marriage in U.S. constitutional law. However, a vote on the FMA is currently being filibustered by Democrats in the U.S. Senate. The House of Representatives has not yet set a date for a debate and a vote on the issue.
