Senator Diane Feinstein Says She Will Introduce Bill To Repeal The Defense Of Marriage Act

United States Senator Diane Feinstein (Democrat-California) issued a statement late Wednesday saying that a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she intends to introduce a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, her announcement arriving after the Obama Administration announced the Department of Justice would no longer defend the 1996 act defining marriage as that only existing between one man and one woman, according to a report by the San Jose Mercury News. Feinstein said that “My own belief is that when two people love each other and enter the contract of marriage, the federal government should honour that. I opposed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996. It was the wrong law then; it is the wrong law now; and it should be repealed." Rick Jacobs, the founder and chairman of the Courage Campaign, a progressive grass roots organization representing an estimated 700,000 Californians, said Wednesday that the president's decision "is a huge victory for equality and justice in the United States." The Courage Campaign had pressured the Obama Administration not to defend these cases, and Jacobs said it launched a social-media effort to thank the president for his decision, but also to urge him to publicly acknowledge the right of gays and lesbians to marry. The Florida-based Liberty Counsel, however, a conservative law group that has helped to defend California's Proposition 8 against constitutional challenges, issued a statement that accused the president of placing his own ideology above his duty to defend lawfully passed legislation that already has been upheld by other courts. "Today, President Obama has abandoned his role as President of the United States and transformed his office into the President of the Divided States," Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mathew Staver said. "He has been the most divisive president in American history. He has today declared war on the American people and the fundamental values that are shared by most Americans. His radicalism resulted in the historical push-back in the 2010 elections. His radicalism today will come back around when the people respond to this betrayal in 2012."