Jared Polis says there’s no defense for the Defense of Marriage Act

Yesterday, Representative Jared Polis joined colleagues Jerrold Nadler and Tammy Baldwin, Dems from New York and Wisconsin, respectively, at a press conference boosting the Respect for Marriage Act. During his microphone time, viewable above, Plis referred derisively to the “thirteen-year-old, so-called Defense of Marriage Act,” which would be wiped off the legislative map by the new bill; in his view, DOMA “singles out legally married same sex couples for discriminatory treatment under federal law, denying them federal benefits and rights, denying them social security, denying them health benefits that are available to other married couples.”

In contrast to his beer-bonging appearance with Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert last month, Polis came across as serious and forceful, and while he acknowledged that the new legislation, currently supported by ninety members of the U.S. House, is hardly a slam dunk, he declared that “this is how change starts.” With that in mind, he might be heartened by the response to a Fox News article about his efforts. True, most of the comments were negative, many virulently so. But in the midst of the nastiness, one person wrote, “Hetero marriages end in divorce about half the time anyway, so it’s not like the gay marriages have any great standard of success to uphold. Give them an equal chance at misery.”

That’s progress!