FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact Carisa Cunningham (617) 426-1350

March 16, 2011

GLAD Plaintiffs Nancy Gill and Marcelle Letourneau, Attorney Mary Bonauto Join Call for DOMA Repeal

Nancy Gill and Marcelle Letourneau joined other married same-sex couples at two Capitol Hill press conferences today in support of a bill filed to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act.  They were accompanied by GLAD Civil Rights Project Director Mary L. Bonauto, who is representing them and other Massachusetts couples and widowers in the DOMA Section 3 challenge Gill et al v. OPM.

“Marcelle and I have been happily together for 30 years and happily married for five,” said Nancy Gill, a federal postal employee for 23 years.  “We’re raising two kids.  Unlike my married co-workers, I can’t put Marcelle on my health insurance because of DOMA.  Our family should be treated the same as the families of our co-workers, and our children should be just as secure as theirs.”

“DOMA affects real people, real families, and real children,” said Bonauto.  “When these folks are denied family medical leave, social security spousal and survivor benefits, joint filing of federal income taxes, employee and retiree benefits and all the other federal protections normally given to married couples they are being treated like second class citizens and is has a real impact on their lives.”

The bill filed in Congress today, the Respect for Marriage Act, is sponsored in the House by Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Jared Polis, David Ciccilline, John Conyers, and 101 others.  In the Senate, it is sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Leahy, Kirsten Gillibrand, Christopher Coons, and Richard Blumenthal.

In addition to Gill in the First Circuit, filed on March 3, 2009, GLAD filed the DOMA Section 3 challenge Pedersen v. OPM, representing couples from Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire, in the Second Circuit on November 9, 2010.  In July of 2010, # # #