Gay and lesbian activists throughout metro Detroit are celebrating the Obama Administration’s decision to end support for the current federal ban on gay marriage, the Defense of Marriage Act.

“Just one more victory in the march towards full equality for the gay and lesbian community nationwide,” former Ferndale Mayor Craig Covey said in an article for the Daily Tribune, which serves Southeastern Oakland County.

Covey is the state’s first openly gay politician to hold a position in Michigan.

“Society is moving inexorably toward full equality and legitimacy for the (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, and this is just one more step in that direction,” he said.

Secretary for Wayne State’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Allies student union and junior psychology major Ashley Niedzwiecki said President Barack Obama’s decision is a step in the right direction.

She also said the decision was correct because DOMA is in violation of the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment.

“However, it is just the first step in a long line of steps that need to be taken before we will see marriage equality,” Niedzwiecki said.

“I can’t help but fear that this is just another political ploy by President Obama to keep the LGBT community at bay, much like when he declared June LGBT Pride Month, even though it had already been considered pride month by the LGBT community for years.

“However, as long as he backs up his statement with some real action, this will mean great things for LGBT equality in this country.”

Niedzwiecki also said it doesn’t matter if Obama’s action is influenced by his desire to keep the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender vote or because of his convictions.

What really mattered, she said, is what actions he and Congress make from now and whether any progress for the LGBT community’s causes can be made.

Michigan currently still holds a ban on same-sex marriage.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan and co-author of the state’s Marriage Protection Amendment, said Obama’s decision was mostly irrelevant in terms of its legal effect.

“Neither side of this issue trusted or believed the Obama Administration when it previously purported to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court despite the president’s stated support for repealing it,” he said. “We certainly didn’t trust or depend on an aggressively pro-homosexual-agenda administration’s half-hearted legal defense of one-man, one-woman marriage.”

Glenn also said whatever Obama said about the law is unlikely to sway any votes on the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, he said the president still made the wrong decision.

“(DOMA) — which Obama now declares illegitimate, indefensible and unconstitutional — was signed into law by his Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, after passing both houses of Congress with overwhelmingly bipartisan, veto-proof support,” Glenn said.

Glenn also said Obama’s position indicts the majority of Democrat voters — including Clinton, Vide President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich. — who voted for DOMA.

He said DOMA is also consistent with the classic definition of Christian marriage’s overwhelming support, which has been reflected in the popular votes through marriage protection amendments have been placed in the constitutions of 30 states.

“And he’s clearly wrong in attempting to radically redefine the institution of marriage, which has proven over thousands of years to be the foundational building block of society and a great civilizing instrument for men and source of security, stability and safety for women and children,” Glenn said.

Glenn also said homosexual activists “have never had a bigger cheerleader in the White House” than Obama, who supports various legislation that “combined pose the greatest single threat to religious freedom in America today.”

He said it was also notable that Obama’s stance is at odds with most African-Americans’ for whom support of the classic Christian definition of marriage and opposition to homosexual behavior “is stronger among African-Americans than among any other racial demographic of our citizenry.”

Many Michigan residents are still uninformed or misinformed on the topic. Jeff Wattrick, blogger and producer for MLive Detroit, has worked to educate them.

One stigma is HIV/AIDS that some still see as the gay and lesbian disease.

“The stigma associated with HIV and AIDS has long been a challenge to effectively fighting the disease,” Wattrick wrote in his MLive blog.

“It’s absurd because there is no such stigma for other ‘lifestyle’ diseases like lung cancer-caused smoking or heart attacks brought on by obesity.”

Opponents of some LGBT civil rights issues can be found in both Republican and Democrat parties, including former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who said in an interview with Bill Maher: “I believe in Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

Niedzwiecki said there is much work to be done by the LGBT community and its supporters.

“We need more hate crime legislation, more enforcement of those laws, anti-discrimination laws, and it needs to be legal for LGBT couples to adopt,” she said in an e-mail. “In several states, including Michigan, it is legal to discriminate against someone based solely on their sexual orientation or gender identity (perceived or actual).

“The gains we have made recently are really monumental, but they should not be used as excuses for apathy — we still have a long way to go before we have equality for the LGBT community.”