Gerry Studds: “first if I may make a legal observation then a much more personal one. This bill has two brief sections. One purports to…”

“first if I may make a legal observation then a much more personal one. This bill has two brief sections. One purports to give States the right to decline to recognize marriages in another State, and the other denies Federal benefits to any State which makes such a decision. As has been said before, the first part is absolutely meaningless. Either under the Constitution the States already have that right, in which case we do nothing, or they do not, in which case we cannnot do anything because it is a constitutional provision. So, so much for the first part. We are then left with a bill that simply denies Federal benefits to any State which choose to sanction a certain kind of marriage. Mr. Speaker, I have served in this House for 24 years. I have been elected 12 times, the last 6 times as an openly gay man. For the last 6 years, as many Members of this House know, I have been in a relationship as loving, as caring, as committed, as nurturing and celebrated and sustained by our extended families as that of any Member of this House. My partner, Dean, whom a great many of you know and I think a great many of you love, is in a situation which no spouse of any Member of this House is in.”