States Rebuke Gay Marriage Ban

A Massachusetts judge has ruled that the federal gay marriage ban, a.k.a. The Defense of Marriage Act, violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. “The rationale offered for DOMA at the time was that Congress was trying to encourage responsible procreation and child-bearing, to bolster the institution of heterosexual marriage, and to defend traditional morality. Judge Tauro wasted no time dismissing these points, starting with the responsible child-bearing objection: ‘Since the enactment of DOMA,’ he wrote, ‘a consensus has developed among the medical, psychological, and social welfare communities that children raised by gay and lesbian parents are just as likely to be well-adjusted as those raised by heterosexual parents.'”