Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has come out in support of marriage equality, ABC News reports:
“Like so many of my generation, my views on allowing gay couples to marry have been challenged in recent years by a new, more open generation. Churches and ministers should never have to perform marriages that violate their religious beliefs, but the government shouldn’t discriminate against people who want to marry just because of their gender,” Rockefeller said in a statement emailed to ABC News today.
“Younger people in West Virginia and even my own children have grown up in a much more equal society and they rightly push us to question old assumptions – to think deeply about what it means for all Americans to be created equal. This has been a process for me, but at this point I think it’s clear that DOMA is discriminatory. I’m against discrimination in all its forms, and I think we can move forward in our progress toward true equality by repealing DOMA.”
Rockefeller voted for DOMA when it passed under President Clinton in 1996. But in 2004, he voted against an amendment to the Constitution banning same-sex marriage, saying both his state and federal government already had laws limiting marriage to one man and one woman.
Rockefeller is the 4th U.S. Senator in two days to come out in support for marriage equality.
