In a major reversal, the Obama administration said today, that the Defense of Marriage Act – DOMA - which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman -- is unconstitutional.

And to make that point, the White House has instructed the Department of Justice to stop defending it in court.
 
"The President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 It's not the Defense of Marriage Act's death, but it's some long-sought change we  can believe in.

The president's directive is long overdue, but why now? The likelihood that attitudes towards marriage equality have changed substantially in the past two years seems slim, indicating that there may be more at work. With headlines presently monopolized by people-powered uprisings across the Middle East and America's Mid West, perhaps the administration assessed the present moment as one where big news -- like flip-flopping on the constitutionality of DOMA -- would meet scant few eyes, and thus trigger scant few(er) objections.