DOMA Repeal Would Not Extend Federal Benefits to Civil Unions, Domestic Partnerships

The decision not to seek federal benefits for domestic partnerships or civil unions in legislation aimed at lifting the country's same-sex marriage ban is a mistake, contend some local Bay Area activists. "It is stupid. It is narrow-minded. We need to stop it," said Leland Traiman, a member of the group National Marriage Equality. "It seems like an East Coast-West Coast thing. Where does marriage exist? Primarily on the East Coast." As the Bay Area Reporter first reported in July, the bill aimed at overturning the Defense of Marriage Act introduced September 15 by Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) only aims to extend the more than 1,100 federal rights and benefits that come with marriage to those couples who marry in the five states that allow LGBT couples to wed. (A law to extend marriage equality to LGBT couples in Maine will be decided by the Pine Tree State's voters in November.) Full Story from the Bay Area Reporter: http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=4192

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