Rockland Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling DOMA Unconstitutional

Joseph Coe of Pomona, President of the Rockland County Young Democrats, said many people are crying tears of joy Wednesday.

He joined in those praising the 5-4 decision by the United State Supereme Court that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is Unconstitutional. DOMA, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, kept the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages that had been legalized by the states. 

"The Supreme Court did the right thing," Coe said. "They have enforced the fact that LGBT couples are and should be equal under the law. This historic case will (be) the continuation of a long struggle and movement toward full lesbian, gay and bisexual equality here in the United States."

With DOMA in place, same-sex married couples in New York were not eligible for federal benefits available to heterosexual married couples. Coe said same-sex couples had to go through paperwork and procedures that heterosexual couples did not have to deal with. 

"This essentially means marriages in states with equality are recognized by the federal government," Coe said.

Coe said there will be a celebration of the ruling starting 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at La Fontana in Nyack. 

Nyack resident Phyllis B. Frank is co-director of VCS, Inc., which produces VCS Gay Pride Rockland. She said there is symbolic value as well as practical in Wednesday's ruling.

"What I was really thrilled about is federally sanctioned discrimination as written into the reality of DOMA, is in the way of a fair and just country, which is the ideal of the United States," Frank said. "The Supreme Court striking down this error is really to celebrate. I also feel it is equally important for future generations, not only bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender, but for heterosexual children as well, to get the message that the United States of American clears the way for all to have access to the resources, benefit and responsibilities of being citizens of this country."

Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy, Rtuh Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan voted in the majority to declare DOMA unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonio Scalia and Samuel Alito all filed dissenting opinions. 

"The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimated purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity," Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. "By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statue is in violation of the Fifth Amendment."

United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) spoke out in support of the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday.

"This is a historic day for our country on its long march towards upholding the fundamental values this country was founded upon of fairness, equality and justice," Gillibrandsaid. "I am overjoyed the Supreme Court has ruled to end the descrimination that had been enshrined into U.S. law."

Gillibrand said there is still work to be done on the federal level regarding DOMA.

"Now that the Supreme Court has ruled DOMA is unconstitutional, Congress must do its job and get this corrosive law off the books so there is certainty for all loving committed couples across state lines," Gillibrand said. "I promise to work hard to pass the REspect for Marriage Act and finally put the discriminatory DOMA policy into the dustbin of history where it belongs."

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