Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) spoke at the National Press Club, July 19, 2011, about her bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. (Photo: Penny Starr/CNSNews.com).

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and replace it with the Respect for Marriage Act,  which would recognize “married” same-sex couples in the same way as married men and women and ensure those gay couples are eligible to receive federal benefits.

Feinstein’s bill would not, however, require states without homosexual marriage laws to recognize those legally sanctioned in other states.

“The bill is simple,” Feinstein said at the National Press Club on Tuesday. “It would strike the Defense of Marriage Act from federal law and it would free the government to allow the same kind of benefits that they allow for married couples to also be applied to same-sex couples.”

But supporters of DOMA and preserving marriage as a union between a man and a woman say repealing the law is a mistake.

Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council, said Feinstein’s bill could force other states’ hand in recognizing same-sex marriage.

“Without the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the radical redefinition of marriage in a handful of states could be forced upon all the other states and upon the federal government,” Sprigg told CNSNews.com. “The fact that 44 states define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and 29 states have enshrined that definition in their state constitutions, shows that there is a strong national consensus in favor of the natural definition of marriage.”

“DOMA has served the country well, and neither Congress nor the courts should tamper with it now,” Sprigg said.

The Defense of Marriage Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and it says, in general, that for any federal purposes marriage “means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.” It also says that no state is required to recognize same-sex marriages sanctioned in a different state.

Robert Koehl, left, and Stylianos Manolakakis, said at the July 19, 2011 press conference that if DOMA is repealed 'we would get married the next day.' (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

In a paper on marriage and same-sex unions, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explained that, “Marriage, as instituted by God, is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman joined in an intimate community of life and love. … Man and woman are equal. However, as created, they are different from but made for each other. This complementarity, including sexual difference, draws them together in a mutually loving union that should be always open to the procreation of children.”

As for gay civil unions or marriages, the bishops said, “For several reasons a same-sex union contradicts the nature of marriage: It is not based on the natural complementarity of male and female; it cannot cooperate with God to create new life; and the natural purpose of sexual union cannot be achieved by a same-sex union. Persons in same-sex unions cannot enter into a true conjugal union. Therefore, it is wrong to equate their relationship to a marriage.”

In his 2005 book, Memory and Identity, then-Pope John Paul II said of homosexual marriage, “It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man.”

Feinstein said she was one of 14 senators who voted against DOMA when Congress passed the law in 1996 because it is “unconstitutional” and “wrong.”

Homosexual activist Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign, two married lesbian couples, and a gay couple who are not married joined Feinstein at the press conference. Feinstein said there are between 50 and 80,000 same-sex married couples in the United States.

“These couples live their lives like all married couples,” Feinstein said. “They share financial expenses. They raise children together and they care for each other in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until death they do part.”

She said the couples at the press conference and other couples have been hurt by DOMA.

Beth Vorro, right, and her wife, Beth Coderre, married in 2004 but said their marriage is 'legally meaningless' unless DOMA is repealed.(CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

“DOMA denies these couples the stability and the protections guaranteed by federal law to any couple legally married in any state,” Feinstein said. “This discrimination is just that – plain and simple discrimination.”

Feinstein’s two-page bill “recognizes” marriage as any couple that has been legally married in a state or a place where same-sex marriage is legal.

"For the purposes of any Federal law in which marital status is a factor, an individual shall be considered married if that individual's marriage is valid in the State where the marriage was entered into or, in the case of a marriage entered into outside any State, if the marriage is valid in the place where entered into and the marriage could have been entered into in a State,” the bill states.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has scheduled a hearing on the bill for Wednesday and was quoted in a press release announcing the introduction of the legislation.

“The time has come for the federal government to recognize that every American family deserves all of the legal protections afforded to couples who are married under state law,” Leahy said. “I am proud to say that Vermont has led the nation in marriage equality.”

“I do not want Vermonters, or people in any other state where same-sex marriage is recognized, to be harmed by the continuing effect of DOMA,” Leahy said. “This is a question of basic civil rights.”

Feinstein vowed to fight for the repeal of DOMA even if it is not done before the close of the 112th Congress.

“And I want to assure you that this is not a cause we are going to drop,” Feinstein said. “We are not faint hearts about this.”

“If we don’t succeed this session, we will try again next session,” Feinstein said. “If we don’t succeed next session, we will try again the following session.

“But believe me, we will continue this effort until the battle is won,” Feinstein said.

Other co-sponsors of the bill to repeal DOMA include Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Dan Inouye (D-Hawaii), and Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii).