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Norton Celebrates Expansion of Marriage Equality to 60% of States by Supreme Court

October 6, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) celebrated the decision by the Supreme Court today to decline to review federal appellate court rulings striking down same-sex marriage bans. "It is virtually inevitable that at a later date the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans," Norton said. "However, the writing is on the wall considering the Court's recent decision striking down a provision in the Defense of Marriage Act that denied federal benefits to same-sex marriages in states where it was legal and the expansion of same-sex marriage to 30 states after today's ruling."

Norton, a leader in the fight for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans and a former chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, called on Congress to immediately pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and to pass legislation authorizing the few remaining federal agencies that could not extend benefits to same-sex couples administratively after the Court's Defense of Marriage Act decision to be able to do so.

After D.C. became one of the first jurisdictions to permit same-sex marriage, Norton defeated at least six congressional attempts to overturn D.C.'s marriage equality law, including a resolution of disapproval to block the law from taking effect.