HRC Blog

The Republican-controlled House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) has filed a motion to intervene in Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s recent challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act and related laws that bar gay and lesbian service members, veterans and their spouses from securing the same benefits offered to straight military couples.

SLDN filed their federal lawsuit in October 2011, and in February of this year the Justice Department reaffirmed its position that it would not defend DOMA in this suit, nor would it defend the laws governing military benefits that separately define marriage to exclude same-sex couples.   

Yet Speaker Boehner continues to hurt military families by defending this discriminatory law. The BLAG has now intervened in the more than a dozen challenges to DOMA across the country, and has committed up to $1.5 million in taxpayer dollars – so far – to defend DOMA and the federal government’s refusal to respect lawful marriages between same-sex couples.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi slammed Speaker Boehner for his continued prejudice against military families, and for taking this action without even a vote of the five-member BLAG – of which she is a member. "Without a vote or any specific authorization ... [BLAG] is intervening in yet another case," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.

Read SLDN’s full statement on BLAG’s motion here.