Thu November 10, 2011 Senate Panel Votes To Repeal Marriage Act
ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Fifteen years ago, Congress overwhelmingly
approved the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. It said, while
each state could decide how to define marriage, the federal
government would only recognize the legal union of a man and a
woman. Since then, more than 130,000 same-sex couples have
legally married in the U.S. and today, a congressional committee
passed the very first measure to repeal DOMA. NPR's David Welna
reports. DAVID WELNA: It was a straight party line vote in the
Senate Judiciary Committee, with every Democrat voting to repeal
DOMA and every Republican opposed. Still, Democratic chairman
Patrick Leahy hailed the result. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY: This
morning, the Judiciary Committee took an historic step forward
in righting an injustice that goes right to the core of what we
stand for in this nation: freedom and equality. WELNA:
California Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, who sponsored the bill,
noted that same-sex marriag