This letter was published with minor editing in The State News in the Thursday 12 September 1996 edition with the title, "Senate votes will not be end of legislation."
Editor
The State News
Tuesday the Senate passed the so-called Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA), which President Clinton will sign into law; and the Senate rejected the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) of 1996. Both actions are pure mean-spirited bigotry that have no place in the self-styled leader of the free world. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not special rights belonging to the political majority; they are the property of the entire people of the United States.
I'm confident that DOMA will be challenged in court and found to be unconstitutional, as have other attacks on personal freedom such as the so-called Communications Decency Act. ENDA will be revised to include protection of transgendered people and will be reintroduced next year; eventually it will pass.
I don't know what manner of political and legal silliness my family will now have to endure. I'm a transsexual female who has been married to a woman for 17 years. We have two young children. If you believe DOMA, our marriage no longer exists, and if you believe certain Republican Senators, our 'non-traditional' family should not exist. But your laws aren't going to change anything in my house. Our marriage was not created in the Senate and our family cannot be wished out of existence.
The bottom line, Senators, is that we're still queer, we're still here, we still love each other, and we still form committed relationships and families with each other. This has been true for all of recorded history and it will continue to be true.
Lisa Lees
Systems Analyst
Department of Computer Science