Jun 19, 2009  |  By: Chris Johnson  | COMMENTS     

The Human Rights Campaign is taking President Obama to task following the release of a controversial Justice Department brief that defends the Defense of Marriage Act.

In letter sent to Obama on Monday, HRC President Joe Solmonese contests certain arguments made in the brief and urges the president to move to repeal DOMA, which prevents federal recognition of same-sex unions.

“As an American, a civil rights advocate, and a human being, I hold this administration to a higher standard than this brief,” Solmonese wrote.

Shin Inouye, a White House spokesperson, said in response that Obama “remains strongly committed to signing a legislative repeal of DOMA into law and looks forward to seeing Congress take action.”

“Work that will help LGBT Americans achieve equal rights under the law has already begun and we look forward to additional progress,” Inouye said.

Solmonese’s letter was written in response to a Justice Department filing in Smelt v. the United States of America, a lawsuit that was filed against DOMA in a federal district court last year.

The Justice Department argues in its filing that the lawsuit against DOMA should be dismissed because the plaintiffs don’t have standing.

The brief also argues that DOMA is constitutional because, among other things, the law represents a “cautiously limited response to society’s still-evolving understanding of the institution of marriage” and “infringes on no one’s rights.”

Legal experts told the Blade last week the Justice Department is required to defend existing statutes such as DOMA and that exceptions that would apply in some cases don’t apply in this instance.

Solmonese begins his letter by noting HRC’s collaboration with the administration and the access that Obama has granted LGBT groups to the White House.

“I realized that although I and other LGBT leaders have introduced ourselves to you as policy makers, we clearly have not been heard, and seen, as what we also are: human beings whose lives, loves, and families are equal to yours,” Solmonese writes. “I know this because this brief would not have seen the light of day if someone if your administration who truly recognized our humanity and equality had weighed in with you.”

Solmonese goes on to invoke the lives of LGBT activists and California residents Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. He notes after being together for 55 years, Martin and Lyon were finally able to marry when same-sex marriage was briefly legal in California last year. Martin died after the couple had been married for two months.

“As you read the rest of what I have to say, please judge the brief’s arguments with this standard: Would this argument hold water if you acknowledge that Del and Phyllis have contributed as much to their community as their straight neighbors, and that their family is as worthy of respect as your own?” Solmonese writes.

Solmonese then argues against different points made in the Justice Department brief defending DOMA. He takes particular issue with the Justice Department’s presentation of DOMA as “neutral” law.

“DOMA is not ‘neutral’ to a federal employee serving in your administration who is denied equal compensation because she cannot cover her same-sex spouse in her health plan,” he writes.

“When a woman must choose between her job and caring for her spouse because they are not covered by the [Family Medical Leave Act], DOMA is not ‘neutral.’ DOMA is not a ‘neutral’ policy to the thousands of bi-national same-sex couples who have to choose between family and country because they are considered strangers under our immigration laws. It is not a ‘neutral’ policy toward the minor child of a same-sex couple, who is denied thousands of dollars of surviving mother’s or father’s benefits because his parents are not ‘spouses’ under Social Security law.

“Exclusion is not neutrality.”

Solmonese concludes the four-page letter by asking Obama to introduce legislation in Congress that would repeal DOMA.