PresidentJoe Bidenon Tuesday officially signed theRespect for Marriage Act, affirming federal acknowledgement of both same-sex and interracial marriages.
Biden signed the landmark bill on the South Lawn of the White House, following the House of Representatives’final approvalof the legislation in a 258-169 vote last Thursday morning. The U.S. Senatepassed the bill last month, with12 Republicansjoining Democrats in support.
Grammy Award winnersSam SmithandCyndi Lauperalso made surprise appearances at the bill-signing ceremony. Smith sang “Stay With Me” while Lauper sang “True Colors” ahead of the legislation’s signing.
President Biden holds a ceremony to sign the Respect for Marriage Act.Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty
In opening remarks ahead of the signing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke of the significance of the moment and noted that he was wearing the same tie he had worn the day his daughter got married to a woman, calling the moment “one of the happiest days of my life.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, said she “was overcome with emotion bringing down the gavel on this legislation,” adding that Biden’s stroke of the pen would help ensure every American has the right to be married.
“This is about respect, this is about taking pride, and it’s about time that we do so,” Pelosi said.
Wearing his signature aviator sunglasses, President Biden said, “Today is a good day” in opening his own remarks.
Elsewhere in his speech, Biden touched on the recent release of WNBA starBrittney Grinerfrom Russian custody, noting that her wife, Cherelle Griner remarked that her family was “whole again” with Griner’s return home.
“My fellow Americans, that all-consuming, life altering love of commitment: that’s marriage,” Biden said before sitting down to sign the bill.
Upon signing the bill,Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” could be heard as those looking on applauded the bill becoming law.
The president released a statement after the Senate’s November vote and said, “Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love.”
He added at the time, “Today’s bipartisan vote brings the United States one step closer to protecting that right in law. The Respect for Marriage Act will ensure that LGBTQI+ couples and interracial couples are respected and protected equally under federal law, and provide more certainty to these families since the Supreme Court’s decision inDobbs.”
Continued Biden: “I want to thank the Members of Congress whose leadership has sent a strong message that Republicans and Democrats can work together to secure the fundamental right of Americans to marry the person they love. I urge Congress to quickly send this bill to my desk where I will promptly sign it into law.”
TheRespect for Marriage Actofficially appeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which defined marriage as involving a man and woman and gave states the authority to refuse recognition of same-sex couples who had married.
It was first introduced in 2009 and, though it passed the House and was moved to the Senate floor in 2011, the Senate vote never occurred. AfterObergefell v. Hodges— a landmark civil rights case that reached the Supreme Court,legalized same-sex marriage nationwide on June 26, 2015— there seemed to be no reason to continue pushing for it — until the events of this year.
On June 24, in the most significant unraveling of human rights in modern history, the heavily conservative Supreme CourtoverturnedRoe v. Wade, eliminating pregnant people’s constitutional right to abortion andpaving a path to come for contraceptives and same-sex relationshipsnext.
“The right to privacy, that’s something we all deserve as human beings,“Jim Obergefell, namesake plaintiff inObergefell v. Hodges,recently told PEOPLE. “It’s something that our constitution should keep sacrosanct, but [overturningRoe] takes that away.”
In aconcurring opinionon theRoecase, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court should reconsiderGriswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, andObergefell— the rulings that currently protect the right to buy and use contraceptives without government restriction, the right to a same-sex relationship, and the right to same-sex marriage.
From Thomas' concurring opinion: “… in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ … we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents…”
Despite the conservative justice’s opinion, national polls showedrecord-high supportfor marriage equality.
“The support for marriage equality is so consistent across poll after poll after poll,” David Stacy, government affairs director for theHuman Rights Campaign, told PEOPLE in an earlier interview. “The numbers are ticking up and they’re sticking.”
RELATED VIDEO: Jim Obergefell Reacts toRoe v. WadeBeing Overturned: ‘Gross Government Overreach’
In July, the House passed RFMA in a 267-157 vote, with 47 Republican representatives joining Democrats in defending marriage equality.
Then, on Nov. 29, a dozenRepublicans joined Democratsin passing the bill in the Senate, including Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming as well as Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, according to the Associated Press.
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The new law is not able to require state governments to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or grant them state-level marriage benefits, as states have the ultimate authority over marriage benefits, second only to the Supreme Court.
What it can do,according to language previously released, is “require the federal government to recognize a marriage between two individuals if the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed” and “guarantee that valid marriages between two individuals are given full faith and credit, regardless of the couple’s sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
source: people.com
