Civil Rights & Equality

Since its inception, our nation has had a long history of fighting for liberties and expanding opportunities and protections to all members of society. Ensuring all Americans, regardless of their race, gender, or sexual orientation, equal opportunities for success and happiness only serves to strengthen the very core of our country.  I support equal rights and remedying existing inequities so that we can remain a model of inclusiveness and fairness.

My priorities include:

• Cosponsoring the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. I was proud to cosponsor the Violence Against Women Act, which authorizes five years of support to strengthen programs and services for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. This bill, which passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support, expands protections for LGBT and Native American victims of domestic violence. The bill also gives greater attention to sexual assault prevention and helps to reduce the backlog in processing rape kits.
• Supporting Marriage Equality. Last fall, I voted in support of the historic marriage equality referendum in Maine. Now, in the Senate, I have continued my support of same-sex couples by signing onto an amicus brief that was sent to the Supreme Court in March 2013, urging the court to overturn Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA represents a significant intrusion of the federal government on matters traditionally left up to individual states, and its sweeping federal definition of marriage currently disenfranchises over 130,000 legally married same-sex couples of the benefits associated with over 1,000 federal laws.