WASHINGTON – The Senate on Tuesday passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which would enshrine marriage equality in federal law, granting protections to same-gender couples.
The bill passed in a 61-36 vote, with 12 Republicans joining Democrats to vote for it. Three senators did not vote. The bill includes a bipartisan amendment that clarifies protections for religious liberties, and it will now return to the House for another vote before it can go to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
The 12 Republican senators who voted “yes” were Roy Blunt (Mo.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Susan Collins (Maine), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Todd Young (Ind.).
Before the final vote, Collins stood to “thank all of the Republicans who have supported this. I know that it’s not been easy, but they’ve done the right thing.”
Biden celebrated the passage shortly after the tally was announced.
“With today’s bipartisan Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, the United States is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love,” the president said in a statement. “For millions of Americans, this legislation will safeguard the rights and protections to which LGBTQI+ and interracial couples and their children are entitled.”
The Respect for Marriage Act would not force states to issue marriage licenses to same-gender couples but would require that people be considered married in any state as long as the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed. The bill also would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman and allowed states to decline to recognize same-gender marriages performed in other states. That law has remained on the books despite being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in United States v. Windsor and its 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which guaranteed same-gender couples the fundamental right to marry.
Democrats have warned since June that federal protections for same-gender and interracial marriages, as well as other rights, could be at risk after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years had guaranteed the right to an abortion in the United States.
In July, the House passed the Respect for Marriage Act, but the Senate delayed its vote on the bill until after the midterm elections. The decision to postpone the vote was negotiated on a bipartisan basis and was made to ensure that there were enough votes to pass the measure.
“The rights of all married couples will never truly be safe without the proper protections under federal law. And that’s why the Respect for Marriage Act is necessary,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Monday. “Passing this bill is our chance to send a message to Americans everywhere: No matter who you are, who you love, you deserve dignity and equal treatment under the law. That’s about as American [an] ideal as it comes.”
Among other things, the amendment clarifies that the bill does not authorize the federal government to recognize polygamous marriages and confirms that nonprofit religious organizations would not be required to provide “any services, facilities, or goods for the solemnization or celebration of a marriage.”
(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Amy B Wang, Mariana Alfaro
If all the government ministers were dealt with (see Spa list), who exactly is in the Senate?
Very useful and relevant comment. The sheeple are people like you who believe the lies that those who like to live in fear spread.
Nice Joe.
Now that Twitter is not censored unlike mainstream media, you have no excuse not to know the truth happening in the world. BTW 11:45 is very much awake.
Your average Joe = among the sleeping religious Jews who are 95% deeply asleep. While over 80% non-Jews awake is very much over average.
Dor HaMabul, 5782.
The rainbow reminds us of Hashem’s guarantee that He won’t bring another mabul to wipe out the world at once, but no one gets away with anything. The USA is definitely on a downhill slope to oblivion.
Ok. I like this idea, prices will go down, traffic will go down. I’m all for it. I’m staying though
Mitt Romney is a worthless lowlife . Thank God he never became President.
“respect for marriage act”?? the irony of the name reminds me of the “inflation reduction act”, which was anything but.
Soon they’ll pass a “humanity rights act” to ‘enshrine’ animal rights.
This is a low point in human history.
This is what the passuk warns about:
כמעשה ארץ מצרים לא תעשו
ואמרו במדרש, שבמצרים היו איש נושא איש ואשה נושאת אשה
The progressive senate is now regressing to the abominations of ancient Egypt.
They’re way past Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt is not known to have performed “Gender Affirming” surgery on children with admittedly zero medical science behind those surgeries.
Shame on the Republicans who voted for this garbage, shame the rasha Schumer, the son of the exterminator from Brooklyn.
“The bill also would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act”
Iy”h one day, they will do teshuvah and repeal this garbage too (if it passes).
Does this legalization do anything, other than allowing them to file a joint tax return? Or is it just a political statement meant to drum up support amongst their constituents?
they have done that already. monkey pox is now, by the demands of PETA, renamed by WHO: mpox, and, as someone already pointed out, chicken pox will not be long behind
just the way HaShem created smart people, He created stupid people we smart people have become too comfortable in this stupid land
It would be good if Maztav could please publish the full text of Agudas Yisroel’s statement on the bill. In the meantime, it can be viewed at their “Agudah” website (an org site) under the heading: “Statement of Agudath Israel of America Regarding the Respect for Marriage Act.”
I don’t understand. Explain how this is “for shame” does it trigger our community so much that other people live in peace and happiness. Live and let live.
1.) What these particular “other people” are doing IS NOT living “in peace and happiness”; instead, it is engaging in the most dehumanizing repulsive crimes.
2.) The intention of these particular “other people” and especially of their wicked promoters in making these laws is not to be able to do their things, for they are doing those crimes anyway. Their intentions in these laws is to FORCE US to recognize and accept and declare those evil acts as being acts that are good and wonderful. Their further intentions in these laws is to FURTHER force us to actually take part in and facilitate the action of those evil acts.
They do not want to LET US LIVE in the real peace and happiness of adhering to what our Torah teaches.
I was there at his “Thursday Night Lecture” at his Beis Medrosh when, over 42 years ago, Rav Avigdor Miller, ZT’L, vehemently thundered at this tragic horrific phenomenon of Jewish people getting into the forefront of promoting and pushing the wicked evil corruptions and perversions of the so-called “Modern World.”
It was part of several remarks he made regarding the problem that the US Supreme Court had declared that a large group of local Nazis, Yimach Shemam, had the legal right to stage a huge demonstration–march in Skokie, Illinois. It was well known that the Chicago suburb of Skokie had a very large number of us B’nei yisroel who had went through but somehow survived the horrific horrors of the World War II European Churban. So it was obvious that the Nazi’s choosing Skokie for the place to make their demonic demonstration was to sadistically taunt these injured people.
Understandably. the minds of American Jewish communities were shot with the gripping fear of: “(CHAS V’SHALOM) ‘IT’ COULD HAPPEN HERE!!”
Rav Miller pointed out that it was (obviously exceedingly misguided) JEWISH lawyers (or lawyers with Jewish sounding names) of the leftist leaning American Civil Liberties Union who had represented the Nazis in their court cases for their march. He further pointed out that in Germany, highly-secularized-away-from-Torah-Jews had been promoting efforts of so-called “modern” trends that weakened and broke down the strength and morals of society. So when the Nazis, Yimach Shemam V’Zichram, emerged and eventually took over the country, with Hitler, Yimach Shemo V’Zichro, proclaiming that “The Jews” were the ones who were causing all the problems, it understandable that the vast masses of German people thought in the back of their minds: “Wow!! This guy Adolf Hitler really knows what he is talking about!!”
Rav Miller angrily exclaimed: “That’s what happened in Germany, and the same thing is happening here!!” “Italians ARE ABHORRED at (that time the big Toeiva issue was) that the New York City Council wants to give equal rights to (Toeiva people)!!” “And who are the ones who are pushing (Toeiva) rights?????” “Jews!!!!!!!!!”
Rav Miller thus forcefully concluded:
“EVERY Jewish person must be brought to Torah!!” “EVERY Jewish child must be in a Yeshiva!!” “Because if a Jew is not with Torah, (the problem is not only that, for example, he will not observe Shabbos; the problem is not only that, for example, he will not eat Kosher, the problem is that) he will become A PHYSICAL DANGER to the Jewish people!!!!!!!!!”