The cynically-named "Defense of Marriage Act" advances the reactionary, antilabor goals of the U.S. rulers. The law bars federal recognition of marriages among gays and lesbians, and allows state governments to refuse to recognize marriages performed legally in another state other than those between a man and a woman. In permitting this abrogation of the so-called "full faith and credit" provision of the U.S. Constitution, Congress and the White House reinforce the reactionary notion of states' rights.

What's more, the bill is part and parcel of the employers assault on the social wage of working people. It makes use of reactionary and divisive prejudices against gays and lesbians to single out a layer of working people and others and deny them federal entitlements.These include the right of a surviving spouse to continue receiving a portion of Social Security, veterans, or other benefits of a deceased partner.

It is hard to think of legislation more gratuitously cruel and demeaning than a measure permitting the state to treat certain sections of the population -in this case gays and lesbians - differently from others with regard to elementary civil equality and access to government benefits. Such legislation - like the earlier miscegenation laws that barred matrimony between a Black person and a white person - targets certain individuals as less than fully equal before the law, as less than fully human.

Both parties of big business are using this reactionary, anti-working-class measure to further weaken and divide the labor movement and prospects for effective resistance to capitalist austerity.

The Welfare Reform Act Clinton recently signed signaled a more direct opening salvo against the gains registered in the Social Security Act of 1935 and its extensions wrested by Blacks and other working people in the 1960s and 1970s from the 60 families that rule the United States.

But from the point of view of the bosses' broader ideological preparation for their assault on the working class - what ultrarightist Patrick Buchanan called the "culture war" - the overwhelming bipartisan vote for the Defense of Marriage Act undoubtedly gave a boost to Buchanan and his ilk.

Many people, especially youth, are rightfully outraged today at this blatant attempt by the state to invade privacy, to interfere in the personal lives of millions.

All working people have a stake in joining those already opposed to this reactionary legislation and in taking the moral high ground by explaining its far-reaching antilabor implications and demanding civil rights for gays and lesbians now!  
 
 
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