The US Congress passed landmark legislation to protect same-sex marriage under federal law on Thursday, with President Joe Biden vowing to quickly sign the measure into law. In the House vote, 39 Republicans joined a unified Democratic majority in a rare display of bipartisanship, prompting loud cheers on the floor less than 10 days after the Senate passed the same bill.
“Today, this chamber proudly stands with the forces of freedom,” outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said shortly before the vote. The conservative-led Supreme Court struck down longstanding abortion rights in June, prompting lawmakers of both parties to move quickly to prevent the court from taking away same-sex marriage rights, as some feared it might do.
The House, which had previously passed similar legislation, needed Thursday’s vote to reconcile minor differences with the Senate version. Biden made marriage equality one of his legislative priorities and said he would “immediately and proudly” sign the bill. Democrats and others hailed the historic vote. “I started my career fighting for LGBTQ communities,” Pelosi tweeted Thursday, “and now one of the last bills I’ll sign as speaker will ensure that the federal government never again stands in the way of marrying the person you love.”
The new legislation, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, does not require states to legalize same-sex marriage, but does require them to recognize the marriage if it was valid in the state where it took place.- “Wrong Way” –
It repeals previous legislation defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and also protects interracial couples by requiring states to recognize legal marriages without regard to “sex, race, ethnic origin, or national origin.” Public acceptance of same-sex marriage has grown dramatically in recent decades, and polls now show that a large majority of Americans support it. However, some conservatives and the religious right remain opposed. “I think this is the wrong way to go,” conservative Republican Jim Jordan said shortly before the vote.
House Democrats have worked urgently to pass the bill while they still control Congress. Republicans won a narrow majority in November’s general election and will take control there in January, while Democrats retain narrow control of the Senate. In its 2015 decision, the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Since then, hundreds of thousands of couples have married.
