In a landmark bipartisan vote, the U.S. Senate passed legislation on Tuesday that protects the right to same-sex and interracial marriage.
The Respect for Marriage Act, which had already passed in the U.S. House, passed in the Senate on Tuesday night by a vote of 61-36. The bill received unanimous support from Democrats, plus 12 Republicans who also backed the bill in a procedural vote earlier this month.
“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 statement responding to the bill’s passage Tuesday.
Lawmakers began voting around 3:45 p.m. on three separate amendments proposed by Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Marco Rubio of Florida and James Lankford of Oklahoma.
The amendments called for additional protections for religious freedoms after some Republicans expressed concern that other changes to the bill did not go far enough. The bill passed without Lee’s amendment, which would have prevented the government from retaliating against religious individuals and institutions for their religious beliefs regarding marriage.
“This is a discouraging development in our country’s storied history of protecting the free exercise of religion,” Lee tweeted after the vote. “While I’m disappointed that my amendment was not included, I remain committed to preserving the religious liberties enshrined in our Constitution for all Americans.”
The final bill, which did include a provision to ensure polygamous marriage remains illegal in the United States, repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples.
The measure now goes back to the U.S. House for another vote. If approved, the Respect for Marriage Act would then head to Biden’s desk where the president is expected to sign the measure into law before Democrats lose control of the House in January.
Biden called the Senate’s passage of same-sex and interracial marriage protections a “bipartisan achievement.”
“For millions of Americans, this legislation will safeguard the rights and protections to which LGBTQI+ and interracial couples and their children are entitled,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday evening.
While the bill does not make same-sex and interracial marriage legal in every state, it does force individual states to recognize another state’s legal marriage.
“Because of our work together, the rights of tens of millions of Americans will be strengthened under federal law. That’s an accomplishment we should all be proud of,” said Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who also tweeted a photo as he called his daughter and her wife about the bill’s passing.
“The bill we are passing today will ensure their rights won’t be trampled upon simply because they are in a same-sex marriage.”
While many Republicans did not support the bill, 12 GOP lawmakers helped form the coalition of bipartisan support that pushed it through.
“For the sake of our nation today and its survival, we do well by taking this step,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., as she called for more tolerance during what she described as “turbulent times for our nation.”
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Lee’s amendment, which would have prevented the government from retaliating against religious individuals and institutions for their religious beliefs regarding marriage.
The Destroy Religious Freedom Act passes with help from Republicans.
RINOS.. Not republicans
Same-sex marriage is just the next step backwards to the justification of Polygamy. Mormon Romney who voted for this must be eyeing the formation of his own new Harem, just like his relatives had back in the 1800’s. It is the Democrats and RINO’s themselves who show disrespect for Marriage by calling such a moral travesty respectful. Their “respect for Marriage Act” bill is no more respectful than their Deceptive “Affordable care act” was affordable, and their imagined lied to THE PEOPLE as passed Student Loan Forgiveness Bill has ended in actual forgiveness. Why would sane Republicans dirty themselves politically by climbing on to soft comfy but morally filthy mattresses to embrace their deceptions as their own? Shame on the morally malleable Republicans who gave, not stood their ground to protect the moral compass of this nation whose rot just went deeper into the flesh of the American body politic.
Knowing these folks, Overturning the Polygamy laws, may be next…
this is why the gop gets no more of my money these rinos are disgusting and spineless why dont they switch parties.
if you notice not one demoncrat broke ranks in this vote or any other.
the republican establishment is all but non existent to me anymore.
you are trash and you will be the downfall of america when history is written.
SO much for us having to have done all that work, to give a GOP majority.. ONLY to see them STILL WORK to pass the leftists agenda…