U. S. Sen. Arlen Specter made headlines earlier this year when he announced that he was switching the “R” after his name to a “D,” and he was again in the headlines late last month when he declared that he had also shifted his position on an LGBT issue that has beleaguered the community for more than a decade.
Specter was one of 86 senators who voted in favor of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which bans same-sex couples from receiving federal marriage benefits afforded to heterosexual married couples, but recently announced that he is now in favor of repealing the bill.
Specter, who’s served for nearly 30 years in the Senate, said that 13 years ago he was in a “more traditional” mindset and, since then, has progressed on his views on DOMA, just as the rest of the country has gradually become more open to marriage equality.
“With the passage of time, we’ve had half a dozen states take the initiative on same-sex marriage and the idea of domestic partnerships and civil unions have certainly increased,” he said during an interview in PGN’s office last week. “President Clinton put it very well when he said that the issue has been evolving, and that pretty much summarizes my views, too. At the time that DOMA passed, it passed 86-14, and not many bills pass in the Senate with 86 votes. There was a very different mood in the country when that bill was passed, a very different mood.”
Specter said the best strategy to overturn DOMA is a combination of efforts on both legislative and judicial fronts, which are both currently being employed.
The Respect for Marriage Act, a bill to repeal DOMA, was introduced in September in the House but has not yet surfaced in the Senate.
Specter said he would cosponsor such a bill if and when it is introduced and “would consider” taking the lead on it. Although he is now an advocate for DOMA’s repeal, he did not proffer his personal views on same-sex marriage, stating that if there was a push to legalize such unions in Pennsylvania, he’d “say that it’s a matter for the state legislature.”
Specter, who initially announced his support for DOMA’s repeal on the Senate floor in late October and followed up with a posting on his Twitter page and an op-ed piece in Huffington Post, is facing a challenge from U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-7th Dist.) in April’s primary. But the senator said his reversal on DOMA was not motivated by the upcoming election, and to those who contend that, he said he’d “point to my long record” of voting with the LGBT community.
Specter served as a cosponsor of the bill to include the LGBT community in the federal hate-crimes law since its inception in 1997. The measure, which had long been pioneered in the Senate by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, passed both houses of Congress last month and was summarily signed into law by President Obama, which Specter said was a “terrific development.”
“It was a very emotional afternoon at the White House when the president signed it,” said Specter, whom Obama recognized during the signing reception. “So many people had tears in their eyes. It was very emotional.”
Specter has also been a longtime opponent of the military’s policy banning openly gay servicemembers, voting against the original enactment of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 1993. Although legislation to repeal the policy has never been introduced in the Senate, he said he would support such a bill.
“It was supposed to be introduced by [Sen.] Kristen Gillibrand [D-N.Y.], and I told her I’d cosponsor it, but she hasn’t introduced it yet,” Specter said. “When someone takes stewardship over a bill as she did, you should wait for her to move on it and not try to step over her.”
Last week, openly gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank advocated attaching an amendment to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to the 2011 Defense Authorization legislation. While Specter would cosponsor a stand-alone version if it is introduced in the Senate, he said Frank’s suggestion may have a better chance at passage.
“I think the better strategy would be the one that Frank suggested,” Specter said. “If you have it as a stand-alone bill, it’s going to be filibustered for sure. But if you attach it as an amendment — that’s what was successful with the hate-crimes amendment — I think that’d be best.”
Specter has been a cosponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban discrimination against LGBT individuals in the workplace, since 1999 and said he thinks the chances of passing the bill in this session are “excellent.”
The senator recently signed on as cosponsor of two other federal bills to expand LGBT rights: the Uniting American Families Act, which would provide foreign same-sex partners of U.S. citizens the same rights as heterosexual spouses, and the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act, a bill to extend domestic-partner benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees.
On the healthcare front, the House recently passed a healthcare-reform bill that included several provisions of benefit to the LGBT community, such as a stipulation that would eliminate the income taxes that same-sex domestic partners pay on their shared health benefits that married couples do not face, and another that would allow those with HIV to be eligible for Medicare earlier in their illnesses.
The provisions are not currently included in the Senate version, but Specter said they “sound like the sort of things I would support” as amendments to the Senate bill, adding he needed to review the text.
Specter, 79, said his recent return to the Democratic Party — which had long been encouraged by Vice President Joe Biden “on train rides for the better part of three decades,” President Obama and Gov. Ed Rendell — came shortly after the passage of another wide-ranging piece of legislation.
“The critical moment came with the stimulus package. I looked at it as this country was moving toward a depression, and I felt the bill had to be passed. When I voted for that, it was just not tolerated in the party. At that moment I had become a supporter of the Obama agenda and I’d been called a RINO [Republican in Name Only] for years because on so many matters I’d voted with the Democratic side.”
Specter, whose grandfather was a member of the only Jewish family in his hometown in the Ukraine, also grew up in the only Jewish family in Russell, Kan., which he said has given him some insight into the discrimination LGBT people face.
“I know what it’s like to be a minority. I know what it’s like to be the object of insults and derision, and that’s one of the reasons I became a lawyer — to protect my civil rights,” Specter said. “I’ve long believed in civil rights, and gay and lesbian rights are part of civil rights.”
Specter has had two bouts with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, most recently last year, and is currently in remission, but said he doesn’t have plans to retire any time soon.
“I’d consider retirement when I felt I was no longer able to make a significant contribution to the Senate. I play squash and I lift weights every day. When the age question comes up, I always quote the baseball player Satchel Paige: ‘If you didn’t know your age, how old would you think you were?’ I think I’d say 37, and I’d only pick 37 because I don’t think people would believe 17.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].