By Kevin Perez
On Thursday the House of Representatives passed the Respect f0r Marriage Act on a 258 to 169 vote. 39 Republicans joined the Democrats in passing the bill after it passed in the Senate last week.
The bill ensures federal recognition of any marriage between two people as individual states would be required to recognize another state’s legal marriage. The bill protects same-sex and interracial marriage rights.
The bill now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk where he is expected to sign it into law.
Opposing the bill, some Republicans had concerns about the infringement of rights of religious institutions that refuse to accept same-sex marriage. In response, senators added an amendment to the bill that protected religious beliefs that would withhold them from recognizing same-sex marriages. Religious organizations would not be forced to provide service for any marriage, nor could they lose their tax-exempt status.
The push to pass the legislation picked up steam after the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, which federally protected the right to an abortion, in June. In an opinion piece pertaining to the reversal, Justice Clarence Thomas explicitly laid out the path to revisiting the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide and protected access to contraceptives in Griswold v. Connecticut.
In the event that Obergefell is overturned, a state that bans same-sex marriage would be required to recognize a same-sex marriage from another state under the bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced she would not be running for another term in the position last month, was thrilled by the passing of the bill.
“Just as I began my career fighting for LGBTQ communities, I am overjoyed that one of the final bills I will sign as speaker will be the Respect for Marriage Act: ensuring the federal government will never again stand in the way of marrying the person you love,” said Pelosi in an op-ed piece published in The Washington Post.
The bill formally repeals the Defense of Marriage Act passed in 1996 that defined marriage as a union between man and women, denying same-sex couples federal benefits and didn’t require states to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
