What Legislation Matters Most to You?

• Politics and Law, Raising • doma, enda, glad, hate crimes, polls • 5 Comments

This week Reps. Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, and Jared Polis introduced an LGBT-inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing on the LGBT-inclusive Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Within a week or so, the Supreme Court should file a response to the case filed by GLAD to determine the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). More and more high-ranking military officers are calling for repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. On a state level, many things are happening, including the possibility of marriage equality in New York.

Lots of legislation buzzing around, then. But which will have the most direct impact on your family?

[Update: My poll plugin doesn’t seem to be playing nicely with the latest version of WordPress. While I work on it, here are the choices I had thought of. Please leave a comment with your selection, or add one! (I’ve also amended the comments above based on Diane’s comment on the GLAD case.]

  • LGBT-inclusive federal ENDA
  • LGBT-inclusive federal hate crimes
  • LGBT-inclusive state ENDA
  • LGBT-inclusive state hate crimes
  • Full federal marriage equality and repeal of DOMA
  • Federal benefits equivalent to marriage (e.g., civil unions) and repeal of DOMA
  • State marriage equality
  • State marriage equivalent (civil unions, domestic partnerships)
  • Adoption rights for LGBT families
  • Automatic recognition of non-bio parents
  • Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
  • Other

5 thoughts on “What Legislation Matters Most to You?”

  2. Diane

    Within a week or so, the Supreme Court should decide whether it will hear the case filed by GLAD to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

    No, this is incorrect. In about a week or so, the Obama/Holder Department of Justice is expected to file their response to the GLAD lawsuit which seeks to have DOMA declared unconstitutional. (I’ve read elsewhere that GLAD may be filing an Amended Complaint in the case, which would give the DOJ longer to respond.) The case is in federal District Court, and has a long time (years) before it will get to the US Supreme Court. Only Congress can repeal DOMA; it’s the judiciary’s role to decide whether it is constitutional.

  3. Kathy

    The Uniting American Families Act. The purpose of the bill is to change US immigration law to allow U.S. citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their same-sex partners for immigration.

    Although it doesn’t apply to my family, I know it is important to many bi-national couples out there.

  5. Kate

    Well, they are all important, but I think repealing DOMA is the most important one for our family. We live in Mass, so things are pretty good, but we’re still missing federal marriage rights, which affects us in various ways, including giving my wife’s employer the ability to continue to deny me health insurance, even though we’re married in-state. State marriage equality would be very important to us, too, so that we could feel free to travel safely across state lines.
    Really, though, we all need full equality now in all of those respects and more, and I’m a supporter of the Dallas Principles. Hopefully all of these things will come about sooner rather than later.

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