State Dept: Gay Couples Can Use Their “Married Names” on Their Passports

Posted on June 21, 2009 by fruitfly

At least Hillary Clinton is in there doin’ her part. From the Associated Press:

Gay couples traveling overseas can now show passports that feature their married names, letting them take advantage of a little-noticed revision to State Department regulations that critics had feared would undermine the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The notice of the change says that it does not mean the State Department is recognizing the validity of same-sex marriages and civil unions, but that it was to comply with an amendment to the Code of Federal Regulations that took effect in February 2008.

The name-change revision took effect May 27 in an addition to the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual. It allows same-sex couples to obtain passports under the names recognized by their state through their marriages or civil unions.

Bring in the haters!

Still, groups opposed to gay marriage criticized the name-change provision, saying it erodes the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of any same-sex partnerships.

“It’s an exercise that the current administration is using to try to nibble away at the Defense of Marriage Act,” said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

“There’s no doubt that President Obama has made a strong commitment to repeal the DOMA … and it will take an act of Congress to do so,” Mineau said. “He cannot circumvent the law, but he attempts to do so not head-on, but in an oblique approach.”

We’re getting our equal rights one breadcrumb at a time.

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