BREAKING NEWS: Senate PASSES vote to make same-sex marriage federal law
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The United States Senate voted Tuesday to enshrine the right to same-sex and interracial marriage into federal law.
The Respect For Marriage Act was passed by a vote of 61 to 36. Eleven Republicans voted with Democrats on the measure.
It now heads back to the House of Representatives, where it will likely pass the Democratic-controlled chamber soon enough to make it to President Joe Biden’s desk before the current congressional term is over.
Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin, who helped lead the bill, made an emotional appearance on the chamber floor before the final vote.
Other Democrats dressed in symbolic shades to mark the landmark legislation, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wearing the same tie he wore to his daughter’s same-sex wedding and Senator Kyrsten Sinema coordinating her outfit to represent the colors of the bisexual pride flag.
“The Senate just passed the Marriage Respect Act! This is a huge victory in the fight to protect marriage equality,” Pramila Jayapal, president of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement following Tuesday’s vote.
‘There is no time to lose. The House must act quickly to get it on the president’s desk.”
The law on respect for marriage passed the Senate by a vote of 61 to 36 on Tuesday night
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer marked the historic vote by wearing the same purple tie he wore to his daughter’s same-sex wedding
The president also applauded the Senate’s passage of the bill, touting its “bipartisan achievement” and personally named all 11 Republicans who voted for it.
“With today’s bipartisan Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, the United States is about to reaffirm a fundamental truth: Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person whom they love,” Biden said in a statement. outside the White House.
“Importantly, the Senate’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act is a bipartisan achievement. I am grateful to the staunch members of Congress—especially Senators Baldwin, Collins, Portman, Sinema, Tillis, and Feinstein—whose leadership has underlined that Republicans and Democrats united in support of LGBTQI+ and interracial couples’ essential right to marriage.”
He concluded, “I look forward to welcoming them to the White House after the House has passed this legislation and sent it to my desk, where I will immediately and proudly sign it.
Sixty-one senators voted for the bill Monday in a procedural maneuver, while 35 opposed it.
The law on respect for marriage was first passed by the House of Representatives in July by a vote of 267 to 157.
The bill does not force states to perform same-sex marriages, but requires all 50 states to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages performed in another state.
Republicans have criticized the bill as being weak on protecting religious institutions.
GOP Senators Marco Rubio, James Lankford and Mike Lee have all introduced amendments to the bill to ensure “freedom of religion” in the bill.
Lee’s bill, which he called a “simple, common sense” amendment, aims to “prohibit the federal government from retaliating against any person or group for holding sincere religious beliefs and moral beliefs about marriage,” the law wrote. Utah Senator in a Fox news opinion piece.
It failed to get the 60 votes needed to join the final bill, with 48 senators in favor of the bill and 49 against.
Schumer said earlier on Tuesday that his daughter and her wife would soon have a baby, and that with the passage of the bill he hoped the child would “now grow up in a more accepting, inclusive and loving world.”
Similar amendments by Rubio and Lankford, requiring only a simple majority, both failed. Both measures failed 45-52.
Democrats were urged to codify marriage rights after the Supreme Court overturned five decades of precedent by overturning federal abortion protections.
In a separate but concurring opinion on the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, Judge Clarence Thomas suggested that the Supreme Court could soon rehear the cases protecting same-sex relationships, marriage and the use of contraception by married couples. to research.
“Today we hope to do marriage equality on the floor,” Schumer told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday.
To mark the occasion, Schumer pointed out that he wore the same purple tie he wore to his daughter’s wedding to another woman in 2018.
He noted that the couple would soon have a baby, and he hoped that with the passage of the bill, “that child will now grow up in a more accepting, inclusive and loving world, a world that will honor their mother’s marriage and will give it the dignity it deserves’. deserves.’