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(Trends Wide) — The United States House of Representatives voted Thursday to pass legislation to protect same-sex marriage and interracial marriage, the final step before the measure goes to President Joe Biden for his signature and become law.
The House vote was 258 in favor and 169 against, with 39 Republicans voting in favor along with the Democrats. The voting closed with a loud applause in the hall.
While the bill would not establish a national requirement that all states must legalize same-sex marriage, it would require individual states to recognize another state’s legal marriage.
Pressure to pass a federal law protecting same-sex marriage gained momentum after the Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade.
The bill, called the “Respect for Marriage Law,” was approved in the Senate by a vote of 61 in favor and 36 against last week. The bill had the support of all the members of the Senate’s Democratic caucus and 12 Republicans.
In the event the Supreme Court overturns the 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage, a state could continue to pass a law to ban same-sex marriage, but that state too would be required to recognize a same-sex marriage from another state.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post on Wednesday that she is “delighted” that one of the last bills she will help pass while holding the title of speaker of the Lower House is the legislation that protects marriage between people of the same sex in the United States.
“Just as I began my career fighting for LGBTQ communities, I’m delighted that one of the last bills I’ll sign as House Speaker is the Respect Marriage Act: ensuring the federal government will never again get in the way of the way to marry the one you love,” he wrote in the opinion piece.
President Joe Biden applauded the Senate’s passage of the Respect Marriage Act last week in a statement: “For millions of Americans, this legislation will safeguard the rights and protections to which LGBTQI+ and interracial couples are entitled and their children”.
Biden added: “I look forward to welcoming you to the White House after the House [de Representantes] pass this legislation and send it to my desk, where I will promptly and proudly sign it into law.”
The Supreme Court’s decision in June to declare that there is no longer a federal constitutional right to abortion immediately sparked controversy and criticism from liberal groups, as well as concerns that the court’s conservative majority could target intermarriage. of the same sex in the future. Judge Clarence Thomas, for example, when the Roe v. Wade, explicitly asked the court to review the Obergefell v. Hodges of 2015, which laid the foundation for same-sex marriage across the country.
The Supreme Court is currently considering a case that addresses the issue of LGBTQ rights and religious freedom.
Several conservative Supreme Court members appeared sympathetic on Monday to the arguments of a graphic designer who wants to open a wedding website business but doesn’t want to work with same-sex couples.
The conservative justices viewed the case through the lens of free speech and suggested that an artist or someone creating a custom product cannot be forced by the government to express a message that violates their religious beliefs.
— Ali Zaslav, Ted Barrett and Ariane of Vogue contributed to this report.
