New York appeals court strikes down DOMA - CNN.com
The long and the short of their decision is that DOMA violates the 14th amendment, which is exactly correct. DOMA is unequal protection of the laws, granting special privileges to opposite-sex couples and withholding them from same-sex couples.
A same-sex married couple cannot file a federal married tax return, nor can a same-sex spouse collect Social Security death benefits, nor can they exercise a myriad of other privileges extended to opposite-sex couples.
So, either remove the marriage privileges that are currently granted only to opposite-sex couples, or grant them to same-sex and opposite-sex couples alike.
There is no rational objection anyone can raise to granting the privilege of a married tax return to same-sex couples. There is no rational objection anyone can raise to granting Social Security death benefits to same-sex couples.
No societal harm arises from these activities.
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The harm is that single unmarried people will then have less rights than gays (because marriage is between a man and a woman) and the marriage benefits are designed to offset the expenses of bearing children... Something gays will not do. Sorry... We don't need another entitlement crowd.
Just as marriage has always been between a man and a woman is legally irrelevant, whether one has children or not is also legally irrelevant when determining 14th Amendment issues:
ndividual decisions by married persons, concerning the intimacies of their physical relationship, even when not intended to produce offspring, are a form of liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Moreover, this protection extends to intimate choices by unmarried as well as married persons. 478 U.S., at 216 (footnotes and citations omitted).
LAWRENCE V. TEXAS