Same-sex marriage and Religious Freedom Poetically Strengthens in the same civil rights bill

Same-sex marriage and Religious Freedom Poetically Strengthens in the same civil rights bill

Written by Peter Boykin on November 29, 2022

Same-sex marriage and Religious Freedom Poetically Strengthens in the same civil rights bill

Shared By Peter Boykin – American Political Commentator / Citizen Journalist

Same-sex marriage and Religious Freedom Poetically Strengthens in the same civil rights bill.

The Senate will vote on final passage of a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriage.

The bill has bipartisan support and is expected to pass.

The House would then need to approve the legislation before sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. (Which will be one of the only things I will praise Biden for doing but we know Trump would have gladly signed this too)

Supporters of the bill are eager to pass the legislation through the House before the end of the year with Republicans set to take control of the chamber in January. (The biggest downside to Republicans holding them back for true future victories is too many in the party with their wrong views on LGBTQ rights)

The bill would not set a national requirement that all states must legalize same-sex marriage, but it would require individual states to recognize another state’s legal marriage.

So, in the event the Supreme Court might overturn its Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, a state could still pass a law to ban same-sex marriage, but that state would be required to recognize a same-sex marriage from another state. (This eliminating the point to making it illegal)

The legislation cleared a key procedural hurdle earlier this, when the Senate voted 62-37 to break a filibuster.

The bipartisan group, which includes Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, previously said in a statement that they looked “forward to this legislation coming to the floor.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cited those five senators for their “outstanding and relentless work” on this landmark legislation during a floor speech.

“For millions and millions of Americans, today is a very good day,” he said. “An important day. A day that’s been a long time coming.”

In a sign of how much support has grown in recent years for same-sex marriage, the bill found backing from GOP senators including those in deeply red states.

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming told CNN’s Manu Raju that she voted to advance the Senate’s same-sex marriage bill due to “Article 1, Section 3 of the Wyoming Constitution,” which she read to reporters and includes an anti-discrimination clause.

“That’s why we’re called the equality state,” she added.

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, said the “bill made sense” and “provides important religious liberty protections.”

“While I believe in traditional marriage, Obergefell is and has been the law of the land upon which LGBTQ individuals have relied,” Romney said in a statement.

“This legislation provides certainty to many LGBTQ Americans, and it signals that Congress – and I – esteem and love all of our fellow Americans equally.”