The Defense of Marriage Act known as DOMA was enacted by Congress in 1996 under the administration of President Bill Clinton, whose beliefs at the time were that marriage should be defined as a union between a man and a woman. DOMA allowed the states to refuse to recognize same sex marriages and hold the power when it comes to marriage equality. With the passing of this law, it was directly writing inequality for LGBT people into policy.
The law defined spouse as that of a heterosexual relationship, and wrote stipulations in Section 3 regarding benefits like insurance, jointly filed taxes, and social security ineligible for same sex couples, but not for opposite sex couples. The law itself was first addressed in Hawaii in response to a case that put prohibitions on same sex marriage. Hawaii has been seen as a pioneer in the marriage equality movement, being the first state to address that it is unconstitutional to not afford same sex couples the federal rights and privileges of heterosexual couples. In fear of it spreading to other states, DOMA was called into action.
According to The United States Government Printing Office, the Act, outlined in sections, breaks down to:
This Act may be cited as the "Defense of Marriage Act".
No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.
In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.
This Act allows some state to vote to recognize same sex marriages, and for others to veto. This is also what has led to grey areas when it comes to what rights LGBT couples hold when crossing state lines. A recognized same sex marriage in one state is null and void in another. The Act plays out in many ways, and many same sex couples have petitioned against it, but the language and terminology included makes it very difficult to overturn once a state has enacted it into policy. Not only did the states hold the power, but Section 3 directly impacted marriage equality because it was not recognized federally, so regardless of the state’s choice, it was not recognized in the nation as a whole for federal laws and programs, which included social security, hospital visitation rights and other federal benefits.
Same sex couples who have been in committed relationships for years and upon the death of a loved one have been left with nothing because the state does not recognize their union and denied them inheritance. In the case of Edith Windsor, upon the death of her spouse, although her same sex marriage was recognized in the state she and her partner resided in, because federally it was not recognized she had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes.
Same sex couples fighting in the military were also subject to disadvantages when it came to the same veteran’s benefits, access to bases, and housing allowances allowed to heterosexual couples before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed in 2011. This ultimately affected families unjustly.
After much fighting and back and forth in court, Congress, and The Supreme Court, when President Obama took office in 2008 he began to work towards repealing Section 3 on the basis that it was unconstitutional. In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional and struck down that portion of the Act because it breached the Equal Protections clause in the Constitution that states, “that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction "the equal protection of the laws."
With the repealing of that section, same sex couples received the same benefits as their heterosexual counterparts federally, and the federal government was legally bound to recognize same sex marriages in states that allowed them; however, it still remains in the power of the States whether or not to allow same sex marriage.