Defense of Marriage Act

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is the informal name of U.S. Public Law 104-199. Similar to other federal policies such as welfare reform and the Marriage Promotion Act, DOMA privileges and encourages some relationships and families while stigmatizing and constraining others, in this case based on sexual orientation. Although representative of the political attention paid to marriage as well as gay and lesbian rights in the United States, DOMA is at odds with trends in other parts of the world.

DOMA mandates that states do not have to recognize same-sex marriages from other states and that for the purposes of federal law, marriage occurs only between one man and one woman. DOMA was introduced with overwhelming support in Congress amid speculation suggesting Hawai'i would soon legalize same-sex marriage, thereby forcing other states to recognize Hawai'i's interpretation of marriage. President Bill Clinton signed DOMA into law on September 21, 1996. Since then, approximately 40 states have enacted explicit bans on same-sex marriage. Only six states recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions.

Under DOMA, gay and lesbian couples are denied more than 1,000 federal protections and privileges available to heterosexual married couples such as legal recognition of relationships, access to a partner's employment benefits, rights of inheritance, joint tax returns and tax exemptions, immigration or residency for noncitizen partners, next-of-kin status, protection from domestic violence, and the right to live together in military or college housing. In many states, a parent in a same-sex couple cannot establish a legal relationship with her or his children unless he or she is the biological parent; take family medical leave to care for such nonbiological children or same-sex partners; adopt children; or petition the court for child support, visitation, or custody if the relationship ends.

Proponents of DOMA see heterosexual marriage as the appropriate context for procreation and family formation. According to this view, same-sex marriage would validate alternative family formations, destabilize heterosexual marriage and monogamy, and encourage incestuous relationships and polygamous marriage. Opponents argue such narrow definitions of marriage and family devalue all other types of relationships and families, discriminate on the basis of sex, and conflate homosexuality with incest and polygamy. DOMA stands in stark contrast with policies in other parts of the world, including the European Union, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and parts of Latin America, South Africa, and Eastern Europe, which decriminalized sexual contact between same-sex persons much earlier than the United States did and prohibit sexual orientation discrimination. Most notable is the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights guaranteeing marriage and family rights to gays and lesbians.