Locals Applaud DOMA Ruling

Many locals are applauding Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling on DOMA.

"Today's Supreme Court decision to strike down DOMA and its violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution is monumental,” said Laurie Scheinman, the president of the Long Island Gay PTA, the first and only one of its kind in the nation, and which meets in Garden City.

“This means that my son and all other GLBT children can now access the same federal rights and benefits that my heterosexual children have,” added Scheinman, who owns Wit and Whim, a gift shop in Port Washington.

Others shared Scheinman's view. 

“The SCOTUS decision today in the Windsor vs. U.S. case is a major step for same sex married couples in New York and in other states that recognize same sex marriages,” said Joseph G. Milizio, managing partner of Vishnick McGovern Milizio in Lake Success, where he heads up the law firm’s Gay and Lesbian Representation Practice Group.

“The Supreme Court recognized that the Defense of Marriage Act operates to deny rights to people that the laws of New York and 11 other States have sought to protect," he added. "It ruled that The Defense of Marriage Act cannot survive under these principles. As a result, more than 1,000 rights afforded married people by the federal government will apply to all married couples, gay or straight.”

In Glen Cove, the measure was seen as a sign of progress. Just ask Robert LeBlanc.

“Since homosexuality has already long ago been proven to be genetic in nature in humans as well as all other mammals, those who make effort to thwart their equality clearly lack a great deal of intelligence,” he wrote on Patch’s Facebook page. “Thankfully, the majority of the justices of the US Supreme Court possess at least that level of intelligence.”

And Eliane de Silva had a message for those opposing same-sex marriage for religious reasons.

“To those who stand by religion and say it is against what is written my God is loving and he will be the one who judges me in my time and he knows what is in my heart. To those five justices thank you!

Still, in some states, same-sex couples cannot marry.

“It is important to note that The Supreme Court did not rule that marriage between individuals of the same sex is a constitutional right; rather, the Court stated that the individual states have the right to regulate and define marriage,” Milizio pointed out. “As a result, individual States may continue to deny same-sex couples the right to marry. There are currently 31 States that either have constitutional amendments or legislation preventing same-sex marriage.”

Still, Scheinman sees the day as victorious.

“This issue is about equality – plain and simple and today the Supreme Court delivered equality to all GLBT Americans and families,” she said. “A big hurray!"