Shumlin skips democratic party fundraiser to protest DOMA memo
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BY Louis Porter VERMONT PRESS BUREAU - Published: June 18, 2009
MONTPELIER — Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin has decided not to go to a large Democratic National Committee fundraiser next week to protest a U.S. Justice Department memo related to gay marriage.
"One thing I have learned dealing with marriage equality in Vermont is that we all have a responsibility to stand up for the civil rights of all Americans," Shumlin said Wednesday.
"This memo from the Justice Department is more Bush than Bush," he added. "It takes the only minority group left in America that national politicians can publicly discriminate against and still see their numbers go up in the polls and it reinforces the horrible stereotypes about our friends and neighbors."
Shumlin was to be one of the guests at the event, along with Vice President Joe Biden, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and others. The fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington D.C. — with ticket prices ranging from $1,000 to $30,000 — is aimed at drawing money from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender supporters.
But the timing of the event, just after the release of a memo by President Barack Obama's Justice Department that angered many gay activists around the country, is proving troublesome for the Democratic Party.
"I think Pete Shumlin is terrific. I totally get why he feels the way he does," DNC treasurer Andrew Tobias said by telephone Wednesday.
Tobias, who is gay, is helping organize the fundraiser.
"If I thought that the Department of Justice brief reflected the Obama position and vision of America, I would be boycotting or not going to the dinner either," he said. "But it doesn't."
The White House also made the point that Obama has pledged to work on repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA.
"It's the President's Justice Department. And again, we have the role of upholding the law of the land while the President has stated and will work with Congress to change that law," a White House spokesman said, according to transcripts.
"It may or may not be enough to persuade Peter to come down and join us," Tobias said of the administration's reaction to the Justice Department memo. "If it does, he will be welcome. If it doesn't, I love the fact that he is such a great advocate for my equality."
The president needs to make that clear if that is the case, Shumlin said.
"As an early and strong supporter of Barack Obama I am shocked and disappointed at the level of insensitivity that the Department of Justice has shown towards gay and lesbian couples and their families," Shumlin wrote to Tobias.
"I am proud Vermont made history in how we enacted marriage equality — not through a court order but through legislative action," Shumlin wrote in explaining why he was not going to Washington, D.C. "It is my hope that the Obama Administration will actively support what we did in Vermont — grant marriage equality to all under the law — nothing more and nothing less."
The U.S. Department of Justice memo, which came in response to a lawsuit challenging the legality of the federal law, has caused controversy because it compares the legal issues around jurisdictions recognizing gay marriages from other states to incestuous marriages or marriages between a man and an underage girl.
"DOMA hews to long-established principles in relation to the recognition of marriages performed in other states, and ensures that states may continue to rely on their own public policies to reject (or accept) requests to recognize same-sex marriages," according to the memo. "The fact that states have long had the authority to decline to give effect to marriages performed in other states based on the forum state's public policy strongly supports the constitutionality of Congress' exercise of its authority in DOMA."
Shumlin said it would take a strong statement from the president to ease his concerns about the Justice Department memo.
"Our gay and lesbian neighbors have been persecuted for too long," Shumlin said. "I did get e-mails from a number of citizens who asked me not to attend. I thought about it and decided, no."
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