How would you have voted on the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Easy vote.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

If it weren't for this or something like it, we would have seen a stronger push for a Marriage Amendment.  So, it's not so simple a choice as it might seem.

[Goldwater]

Nay (R).

[Franzl]

If it weren't for this or something like it, we would have seen a stronger push for a Marriage Amendment.  So, it's not so simple a choice as it might seem.

This is a possibility. Just as DADT was still somewhat better than a complete ban...

It's kind of hard to view these issues from our 2012 perspective, where gay marriage is almost a winning issue.

That said: I couldn't bring myself to vote for DoM.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

Nay (R/I)

[TNF]

Nay (D)

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

It's amazing how many people here are either lying or memory impaired.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Back then I would have probably voted, yes.  Not now.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Back then I would have probably voted, yes.  Not now.

Then again, Moran voted against it, so hard to know.

[morgieb]

It's amazing how many people here are either lying or memory impaired.

tbf I was only two when the bill passed.

Definitely no now but maybe back then.

[Supersonic]

No, I wouldn't have voted for it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Obviously my current self would vote against it. I hope we don't get again posts like "yeah but how would you have voted back in the time" because these counterfactuals are impossible to determine. If you're wondering how a 3-year old Italian kid would have voted on it, it's a bit hard to answer.

[Alcon]

I was 6, but I've been pretty gung-ho on gay rights since I was a kid -- maybe the only thing I didn't ever go stupid moderate hero about -- and even out of pragmatism it'd be hard for me to stomach a yes vote on something this unacceptable to me.

[minionofmidas]

Of course, picking gays as the one progressive issue to get behind 100% is very much the moderate hero thing to do (unless you are one, in which case it's just valid self-interest). That's the most privileged group to nonetheless suffer actual bonafide discrimination that you're going to find.

[Alcon]

Of course, picking gays as the one progressive issue to get behind 100% is very much the moderate hero thing to do (unless you are one, in which case it's just valid self-interest). That's the most privileged group to nonetheless suffer actual bonafide discrimination that you're going to find.

That's true.  But nah, genuinely pissed because it's one of the few controversial public policy issues I see as almost totally one-sided.  If I was in it for the Moderate Hero cred, I wouldn't get into ten-page debates with BenKenobi where I scream at him with graphs.  That's how I do anger!

I'll admit my inner Moderate Hero (and prick) does have some fun when I get to tell grads at my liberal arts college that forgiving their student loans is a completely terrible idea.  But with the gays, it's from the heart.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I supported gay marriage as a 12-year old, and couldn't understand what the big deal was even then.

Back then I would have probably voted, yes.  Not now.

Then again, Moran voted against it, so hard to know.

Considering how much of a Moderate Hero adamant on opposing gay marriage but supporting civil unions for completely hilariously contrived reasons even you couldn't defend you were just a few years ago...

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I supported gay marriage as a 12-year old, and couldn't understand what the big deal was even then.

Back then I would have probably voted, yes.  Not now.

Then again, Moran voted against it, so hard to know.

Considering how much of a Moderate Hero adamant on opposing gay marriage but supporting civil unions for completely hilariously contrived reasons even you couldn't defend you were just a few years ago...

Me or Ben?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Ben. His whole reasoning boiled down to something like "Gay marriage might offend some religious people so we should just stick with civil unions" or something. None of his uber-Moderate Hero positions made much sense.

[politicallefty]

As a 9-year old, I have no idea what I would've done. Obviously, I would vote against it today.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Presumably no, but it wasn't as quite as obviously wrong at the time as DADT.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Presumably no, but it wasn't as quite as obviously wrong at the time as DADT.

Hardly. DOMA was always indefensible, DADT was at least an attempted step forward.

[minionofmidas]

Ben. His whole reasoning boiled down to something like "Gay marriage might offend some religious people so we should just stick with civil unions" or something. None of his uber-Moderate Hero positions made much sense.

It does if you add "if it looks as if we can organize a majority for that but not marriage".

Here in Germany, we're still on the slow long dragfight of removing all the little (and some not so little) places in which our civil unions are unequal to marriage... mostly through the courts. It's no go through parliament as long as you got the CDU in government, they're feeling totally renewed and modern and prejudicefree and exemplary because at least they're not trying to undo what's been done.