ABOVE: Sen. Chuck Schumer. Photo via the U.S. Senate Democrats’ Facebook.
This week, the U.S. Senate is expected to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify some of the protections for same-sex and interracial couples that were established by the U.S. Supreme Court but could be weakened or overturned by the High Court’s conservative supermajority.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) just filed for cloture on the legislation, an aide to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) told the Washington Blade.
The “first vote will be on Wednesday,” the aide said in an email.
Baldwin is widely credited with driving momentum behind the bill. She, along with U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) released a statement on Monday urging Senate leadership to put the Respect for Marriage Act on the floor for a vote, explaining they had added protections for “religious liberties.”
CNN reported multiple sources said the coalition of senators is confident they have the votes necessary for the bill to pass.
This summer, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Joe Biden is ready to sign the bill into law.
“He is a proud champion of the right for people to marry whom they love and is grateful to see bipartisan support for that right,” she said.
The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest LGBTQ organization, celebrated Schumer’s announcement earlier today that the upper chamber will “vote on the Respect for Marriage Act in the coming weeks so that no American is discriminated against because of whom they love.”
The legislation, HRC said in the press release, will “codify federal marriage equality by guaranteeing the federal rights, benefits and obligations of marriages in the federal code; repeal the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); and affirm that public acts, records and proceedings should be recognized by all states.”
The impetus behind the Respect for Marriage Act came with the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion in America.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion in which he pledged to revisit precedents governing same-sex marriage and other matters that were decided on the basis of the right to privacy.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
