After failing to protect abortion access by codifying Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday completed the first step in codifying same-sex and interracial marriage with the Respect for Marriage Act.
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After failing to protect abortion access by codifying Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday completed the first step in codifying same-sex and interracial marriage with the Respect for Marriage Act.
President Joe Biden | The White House
“With today’s bipartisan Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, the United States is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love,” President Joe Biden said in a written statement. “For millions of Americans, this legislation will safeguard the rights and protections to which LGBTQI+ and interracial couples and their children are entitled.”
He added, “… I’m grateful to the determined Members of Congress — especially Senators Baldwin, Collins, Portman, Sinema, Tillis, and Feinstein — whose leadership has underscored that Republicans and Democrats together support the essential right of LGBTQI+ and interracial couples to marry.”
Although the Act doesn’t provide the same unilateral protections as the Supreme Court rulings that legalized same-sex and interracial marriages, it does safeguard against the total repeal of marriage rights by requiring states to recognize a marriage from another state.
For example, if the Supreme Court overturned Obergefell v. Hodges and enabled states to pass their own laws recognizing or banning same-sex marriages, an LGBTQ+ couple in a state with a ban could get married in another state where it’s legal and be assured their marriage is still…