Senator Jack Reed will cosponsor DOMA repeal

May 10, 2012

The good news just keeps coming in this week! Just hours after President Obama announced his support for the freedom to marry, we were excited to learn that Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) will cosponsor the Respect for Marriage Act, the bill that would overturn the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. He announced his support via a tweet last night:

 

Senator Reed is now the 32nd member of the Senate to add his name to this important legislation. And now with his support, all members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation are signed on as cosponsors to the bill.

Last September, Freedom to Marry along with our coalition partners Marriage Equality Rhode Island, Ocean State Action, and Courage Campaign, launched a grassroots effort urging Senator Reed to support DOMA repeal. We delivered over 1,000 signatures to his office from constituents around the state who were calling on their senior Senator to take a stand against marriage discrimination. Ray Sullivan, Marriage Equality Rhode Island's Campaign Director, explained our efforts last night in the Providence Journal:

“First of all, we are very grateful to Senator Reed for publicly speaking in favor of marriage equality and agreeing to support the Respect for Marriage Act. This is a tremendous victory for equality supporters who have been reaching out to the Senator on a very personal level for months to help him get to this point.

“We are very grateful that Jack Reed listened, and he should be commended. There was a tremendous groundswell — MERI, Ocean State Action and the national organizations Freedom to Marry and Courage Campaign — all these groups came together to really try to win his support, and we’re very, very grateful and look forward to supporting him and helping him get this important civil rights legislation passed out of the Senate, so we can finally end DOMA after all.” 

We thank Senator Reed for heeding the call of thousands of Rhode Islanders who asked Senator Reed to help lead the charge against DOMA. We look forward to working with him and the growing cosponsors in the House and Senate to move the Respect for Marriage Act forward and end federal marriage discrimination once and for all.

Click here to ask your members of Congress to cosponsor the Respect for Marriage Act.