Seventy major organizations including Google, Microsoft, Xerox, Time Warner Cable, New Balance, Aetna, Levi Strauss & Co., and more have banded together to file and amicus brief in Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders’ (GLAD) DOMA Challenge in the suit of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management. The historical brief illuminates the negative impact that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has on American businesses, explaining, “the burden of DOMA’s dual regime is keenly felt by enterprises that conduct operations or do business in jurisdictions that authorize or recognize same-sex marriage.”
The brief was filed in Boston at the United States Court of Appeal for First Circuit. DOMA, a discriminatory act that defines marriage between a man and a woman, was passed in Congress in 1996 but now businesses say the unfair law has placed burden on them financially due to cost and administration of excluding same-sex couples from receiving the same federal benefits which would ordinarily apply to straight married couples.
“Employers will need to address DOMA as more and more gay and lesbian Americans legally marry,” said Richard E. Holbrook, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Eastern Bank Corporation. “American businesses not only dislike treating some of their employees unfairly, they find it costly and a disincentive to attracting and retaining top-notch workers.”
The brief was authored by Bingham McCutchen LLP, and includes “financial institutions, medical centers, health-care providers, insurance companies, energy and high technology businesses, manufacturers, professional firms, retailers, marketers, non-profit organizations, the Cities of Boston, New York, and Cambridge , as well as trade associations and The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce,” GLAD said in a statement.
“We are thrilled that so many employers are stepping up and showing what DOMA does to them as businesses,” said Mary L. Bonauto, GLAD’s Civil Rights Project Director and co-lead attorney on Gill. “DOMA’s damage is widespread and growing.”
This is an ongoing story. Stay tuned to San Diego LGBT Weekly for more updates as they become available.
