Bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act Passed By House, Sent To President Biden

Update to Bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act Clears The Senate, House To Vote Next Week.

The Hill reports, House sends marriage equality bill to Biden’s desk:

The House on Thursday passed a bill to safeguard marriage equality, sending the measure to President Biden’s desk and marking the first time Congress has provided federal protections for same-sex marriage.
The legislation, titled the Respect for Marriage Act, passed in a 258-169-1 vote. Thirty-nine Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure.

Arizona Congressional Delegation: Yea: Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, O’Halleran, Stanton; Nay: Biggs, Gosar, Lesko, Schweikert.

Keep in mind that the Respect for Marriage Act meerly seeks to secure the validity (sanctity) of same-sex marriages first recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), and inter-racial marriages in Loving v. Virginia (1967). So the NO vote of these four Republicans is a vote to disrespect the sanctity of the marriages of hundreds of thousands (millions?) of American couples. They are hateful bigots.

The Senate approved the measure in a bipartisan 61-36 vote last week, notching a significant win for negotiators after months of talks that followed Justice Clarence Thomas floating the idea of overturning the Supreme Court decision protecting same-sex marriage.

Twelve Senate Republicans joined all voting Democrats to pass the bill.

Following the bill’s passage in the Senate, Biden said he would “promptly and proudly” sign it into law once it arrived on his desk.

The measure enshrines federal protections for same-sex couples, requiring that the federal government and all states recognize marriages if the pair was wed in a state where the union was legal. It also cements protections for interracial couples, ordering states to recognize marriages regardless of “the sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin of those individuals.”

Additionally, the measure repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that recognizes marriage as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife” and refers to the word spouse as “a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.”

The legislation approved by both chambers also includes an amendment outlining protections for religious liberties — an eleventh-hour addition that was central to securing enough Republican support for the bill’s passage in the Senate.

The House had passed the Respect for Marriage Act in a bipartisan 267-157 vote in July, with 47 Republicans joining all Democrats.

But Senate Republicans raised concerns about the lack of religious freedom protections in the measure, which led to bipartisan talks within the chamber to break the impasse and, last month, strike a deal on an amendment. The addition shields religious organizations from having to provide services supporting same-sex marriage, ensures that the federal government does not acknowledge polygamous marriage [it never has] and includes conscience protections under the Constitution and federal law.

The addition of the amendment required the House to take up the measure again on Thursday.

The push for a bill protecting marriage equality on the federal level began in earnest over the summer after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the almost 50-year-old abortion rights decision. In a concurring opinion to that ruling, Thomas called on the court to reconsider Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that enshrined same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.

Thomas’s statement — and seeing a landmark case overturned — set off alarm bells among Democrats that LGBTQ rights were in danger.

The Respect for Marriage Act would require that states recognize same-sex marriages if the court were to overturn Obergefelll, which would return the issue to the states. It does not, however, go as far as to [codify Obergefell] and mandate that states perform those marriages, which is required in the Supreme Court ruling.

Lawmakers referenced that concern during debate on the House floor Thursday.

“Today we will vote for equality and against discrimination by finally overturning the exclusionary, homophobic Defense of Marriage Act and guaranteeing crucial protections for same-sex and interracial marriages,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, said.

“By passing the Respect for Marriage Act we will ensure that all Americans continue to be afforded the same rights by the government, no matter what the Supreme Court may decide in the future,” he added.

Some members spoke about how the measure would affect them personally.

“Thanks to bipartisan work in the Senate, the Respect for Marriage Act comes back to the House with added language that should allay anyone’s fears or misunderstandings, yet still ensure we can legally recognize marriage as it is currently recognized in this country,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), another co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, said on the House floor. “It would be wrong to say my husband Phil and I have a marriage that is any different than anyone else’s marriage here in this body.”