The Respect for Marriage Bill, a US legislation meant to secure interracial and same-sex unions by enshrining them in federal law, passed a key hurdle in the US Senate on Wednesday (November 16). The Senate voted 62-37 to break a filibuster and advance the Bill. On the same day, it became certain that the Republicans have gained control of the US House of Representatives after the recent 2022 midterm elections. The Senate and the House are the two federal legislative bodies in the US. One reason why the Bill was introduced now was that President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party could ensure its comfortable passage, hoping some Republicans would support it with the elections now over, according to the AP. The Bill passed the House in July this year and during Wednesday’s Senate vote, 12 Republicans voted with all Democrats, including the 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. While there is still a long way to go before the Bill returns to the House for final approval and then passes on to the President for his signature, the Senate vote on Wednesday is significant. “It will make our country a better, fairer place to live,” said Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer after the vote. “Passing the Respect for Marriage Act is as personal as it gets for many senators and their staffs, myself included…My daughter and her wife are actually expecting a little baby in February. So it matters a lot to so many of us to get this done,” he added. US President Joe Biden said that the vote “sent a strong message that Republicans and Democrats can work together to secure the fundamental right of Americans to marry the person they love." Supporting the bill, Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is gay, tweeted, “At Apple, we believe everyone should have the freedom to marry the person they love. We’re proud to support the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act and strongly urge the US Senate to act on behalf of families across the nation.” What is the Respect for Marriage Act? According to the AP, the legislation, sponsored by Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Tammy Baldwin and Republican Susan Collins, would “repeal the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act and require states to recognize all legal marriages where they were performed.” It would also protect interracial marriages by requiring states to recognise legal marriages regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.” Introduced in the time of President Bill Clinton in 1996, the earlier law gave the federal definition of marriage as “(1) ‘marriage’ as only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife; and (2) ‘spouse’ as only a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife.” The new law will repeal and replace these provisions. It will also repeal provisions that do not require states to recognise same-sex marriages from other states or deny full claims to unions on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin. The Bill allows the Department of Justice to bring a civil action and establishes a private right of action for violations. Why has this law been introduced? The Clinton-era law was seen by many as an attempt to not alienate conservative voters, shortly after Clinton had allowed gay and lesbian people to serve in the military as long as they were not public about their sexual orientation. However, since then attitudes towards support for the LGBTQ community and gay marriage have improved considerably in the US. With the 2015 landmark Supreme Court judgement in Obergefell v. Hodges, gay marriage was legalised nationwide. Similarly, state laws barring interracial marriages were declared unconstitutional with the court’s Loving v. Virginia judgement in 1967. In both cases, as the US political system is skewed towards more power in the hands of the states, cases came to court due to inconsistencies arising out of different policies at different levels. For example, in the 1967 case, an interracial couple got married in a state where the practice was legal, but, they were sued for violating state laws when they shifted to another state where their marriage was illegal. Significance The AP reported the bill has gained “steady momentum” since the Supreme Court’s June decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and the federal right to an abortion, leaving the issue to the states. At the time, Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion, had written that the court should also consider overturning other precedents protecting same-sex and interracial unions. According to the US Census Bureau, there are about 5,68,000 same-sex couples in the country. The support of a growing number of GOP leaders marks a sharp shift from a few decades ago, when many Republicans were very vocal in their opposition to same-sex marriages. Notably, several conservative religious groups have also come out in support of this Bill. Among them is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which voiced support for the bill, while maintaining that it believed same-sex relationships are a sin. “We are grateful for the continuing efforts of those who work to ensure the Respect for Marriage Act includes appropriate religious freedom protections while respecting the law and preserving the rights of our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters,” the church said in a statement. Some Republicans have said the Bill could infringe on the right of religious institutions that do not support same-sex marriage. “Nothing in the bill adds new protections for gay marriage, but it does, in my view, create great uncertainty about religious liberty and institutions who oppose gay marriage,” said Senator Lindsay Graham in a tweet.
