Another Gay Rights Victory

The gay rights movement is on a roll. First, the Obama administration repealed DADT. Now, the Obama administration will no longer defend Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court. DOMA was passed in 1996 (yes, right around the time we got the DADT policy). Section 3 is the portion of the law that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. It was ruled unconstitutional by a Federal district court in July 2010, and this week, the Obama administration announced they would no longer defend the law.

I’ve posted previously about gay rights and I won’t go through my full position (gay marriage bans run astray of the 14^th amendment). Suffice it to say that I think gay people should enjoy full equal legal rights including legal marriage, though I don’t think a church should have to marry gay couples if it doesn’t want to (I differentiate between legal and religious marriage). I agree with the Obama administration’s conclusions about the unconstitutional nature of DOMA Section 3. This is a monumental victory for the gay rights movement. It’s not over yet, though.

The Obama administration deserves some praise for getting this one right. Hehe…combine the gay rights victories (DADT and DOMA) with my recent thumbs-up to Obama for endorsing the death of the GE alternate engine for the F35, and I’ve probably praised Obama more in the past 2+ months than I have in the past 2+ years. You might even think Obama’s converted me. :-p In all seriousness, I’m fiercely critical of the Obama administration’s missteps, but that cuts both ways because I’ll also gladly give the credit when they get it right. I think the best part of Obama's legacy will be the progress made on gay rights during his presidency.

I’m also interested in the political considerations. From Obama’s perspective, this is a win-win. I think he’s wanted this to happen, so it’s a personal win for him. It’s also a political win because he can energize his base by saying, “Not only did we repeal DADT, like I promised during the 2008 election, but we’re killing DOMA. I did what I promised and then some.” It will also diffuse some criticism Obama’s received from the gay rights movement for what’s essentially political double-speak (or hypocrisy). Up until now, Obama has argued that DOMA Section 3 was unconstitutional, yet his administration has continued to defend it. That’s no longer a valid criticism, and should help galvanize his left-wing base for the 2012 election. Personally, I think he’ll have to do more to energize the left-wing base if the 2010 election was any indication. This is also probably why he’s digging in so aggressively with regards to the, “Assault on unions,” (his words) that’s going on in Wisconsin. Combine this effort to invigorate the base with his attempts to look like he’s coming to the center on economic matters in hopes of picking up some independent and marginally-attached voters, and I think it’s very obvious that Obama’s ramping up the reelection efforts.

So how will the GOP respond? Honestly, I think (and hope) they’ll pretty much let this one go without turning it into a brawl. It’d be wise for them to do so. Sure, you’ll probably see some social conservatives come out and decry Obama’s decision as an assault on American family values and/or they’ll have a bout of the judicial hypocrisy I recently discussed. However, I expect this will be fairly minimal because the political risks would be too great for the GOP to take an aggressive stand against Obama’s actions here.

I think the Tea Party influence will temper the GOP response and keep the social conservatives in check. The Tea Party’s main focus seems to be economic/fiscal policy. Though some of them are social conservatives themselves, my impression is they view social issues (gay rights, abortion, the environment, etc.) as secondary to economic/fiscal policy. There’s also a significant libertarian element to the Tea Party, an element that wants limited government that butts out of an individual’s everyday life and generally allows people to live their lives. Combine the primary/secondary focus dynamic with the libertarian dynamic, and I suspect they’ll largely sit this one out.

That said, just as the democrats have done repeatedly in the past, the GOP has also previously blown my mind (several times) by doing some very stupid things that I couldn’t have seen coming without a working crystal ball. So, we’ll see what happens.

Extension:

I thought more about this, and something else dawned on me. I think the democrats realized that the gay rights movement was gaining too much momentum and they could no longer count on the gay vote as solid democrat votes. There is a small movement within the GOP called the Log Cabin Republicans who advocate for gay rights that's been gaining momentum within conservative circles. I think the democrats feared they were losing their grip on the gay vote and have reacted to firm it up.