The US Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act – DOMA unconstitutional early this morning, making history for our country and for thousands of LGBT individuals, couples, and families who endured the discriminatory law since 1996.
The ruling gives over 100,000 legally married same-sex couples the same rights and benefits as married heterosexual couples under US federal law. In the US, 12 states currently offer legalized gay marriage, while others are working toward it in the near future.
President Obama issued a statement on the DOMA ruling, showing his support for the LGBT community: “I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. This was discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it. We are a people who declared that we are all created equal – and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
For updates and more information on the overturning of DOMA, visit the Human Rights Campaign’s blog.
