NAACP files Brief against DOMA

The NAACP continues their support of gay marriage by filing a brief against DOMA

The Washington Post reports:

The 73-year-old civil rights organization was founded to battle racial discrimination in the courts. No surprise, then, that the LDF was at the Supreme Court last week fighting for the Voting Rights Act. But it also had no problem arguing that the struggle for marriage equality for same-sex couples is in line with the battle against the “separate but equal” doctrine that blocked blacks from pursuing the American dream.

In the brief:

Of course, the nature of discrimination against gays and lesbians differs fundamentally from de jure racial segregation, just as racial discrimination differs from discrimination based on sex and other suspect classifications to which heightened scrutiny applies. But DOMA and other laws that purposefully infringe on the rights of gay people are analogous to the racial caste system effectuated under “separate but equal” in an important respect: they create and perpetuate a social hierarchy that is premised on the superiority of one group over another. 

By virtually any measure, gays and lesbians have been subjected to systemic discrimination throughout our nation’s history, resulting in their ongoing subordination as a class. And DOMA’s express purpose is to create and perpetuate a hierarchy that disadvantages gay people based on their sexual orientation…..

Read the entire brief here