President Obama Throws Weight Behind Repeal of DOMA

Urban Christian News:  S President Barack Obama supports repealing legislation which bans federal authorities from recognizing gay marriage, his spokesman said Tuesday.

The "Defense of Marriage Act" was brought in in 1996 by then president Bill Clinton and stipulates that the federal state only recognizes marriage as the legal union between a man and a woman.

California Senator Diane Feinstein has introduced draft legislation calling for the law to be repealed, which is set to be debated Wednesday in the US Senate. But there is little guarantee that it will pass through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

"I can tell you that the president has long called for a legislative repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which continues to have a real impact on the lives of real people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"This legislation would uphold the principle that the federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples the same rights and legal protections as straight couples."

Attorney General Eric Holder said in February for the first time that Obama believed the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional and had ordered the Justice Department to no longer defend it.

But Obama has not yet openly backed gay marriage rights at the federal level, saying it is up to each state to set its own laws. The White House has repeatedly said his personal position is "evolving," without further details.

The president said he was satisfied last month when the state of New York approved gay marriage laws.

It became the sixth state to do so, following in the footsteps Iowa, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont.