The Republican Congress, criticized for stalling on budget issues, gas tax cuts and minimum wage increases, is attempting to prove that its members still deserve their salaries by launching an unprecedented affirmative attack on lesbians and gays. While hearings for H.R. 3396 and S. 1740, better known as "The Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA), proceed today the National Organization for Women calls on members of Congress to question the true intent behind this bill.

Are we to believe that presumptive presidential candidate Bob Dole and his Republican party, longtime defenders of so-called "family values," support a bill that bars a loving couple from being recognized as a family? Is Bill Clinton, who used his State of the Union address to emphasize the importance of cutting "big government," willing to oppose legislation that would rob local communities of their traditional role in recognizing legal marriages?

This bill is not a "defense" of marriage. It is an election-year move designed to forward an hateful campaign against lesbian and gay citizens by playing on voter fears that the American family is unstable. Yet what better way to weaken the American family than to teach our children that preaching intolerance in the halls of Congress is acceptable behavior for United States legislators? And what better way to strengthen the family than to legitimize and support committed, loving monogamous relationships?

We call on all Senators and U.S. Representatives to consult their conscience before rallying behind legislation designed to promote hate. We call on President Clinton to stop pandering to right wing political forces intent on delegating loving, supportive people to second class status. And we call on voters to truly defend marriage by opposing a bill that denies fellow Americans the right to define their own families.

NOTE: Dempsey, an out lesbian who won a precedent-setting custody case, will attend the hearing at 1:30 p.m., Rayburn Bldg., Room 2237. NOW volunteers last night phoned local activists urging them to contact legislators.