Eric Holder To Extend Recognition Of Same-Sex Marriage Rights To All States

Extending rights federally for same-sex married couples is a major step toward equality in the U.S.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will issue a memo Monday that recognizes same-sex marriages “to the greatest extent possible under the law.”

The federal expansion will include 34 states where same-sex marriage isn’t legal, but the new federal benefits being extended to those states will apply only where the U.S. government has jurisdiction, Holder said.

For example, a same-sex couple legally married in Massachusetts can now have their federal bankruptcy proceeding recognized in Alabama, even though it doesn’t allow same-sex marriages. In the past, the U.S. government could challenge the couple’s joint bankruptcy because Alabama doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.

Of course, those opposed to marriage equality are finding fault. In this case they’re using “states’ rights as an excuse.

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, criticized what he called the latest move by President Barack Obama’s administration “to undermine the authority and sovereignty of the states to make their own determinations regulating the institution of marriage.”

“The American public needs to realize how egregious and how dangerous these usurpations are and how far-reaching the implications can be,” Brown said in a statement. “The changes being proposed here to a process as universally relevant as the criminal justice system serve as a potent reminder of why it is simply a lie to say that redefining marriage doesn’t affect everyone in society.”

It’s unclear, however, how giving rights to one group takes anything away from those to whom it does not apply.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.