Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) bought emotional on Thursday because the Home of Representatives moved to go a historic invoice codifying protections for same-sex and interracial marriages.
The Missouri congresswoman, who's a social conservative and longtime opponent of same-sex marriage, urged her colleagues to reject the invoice on the grounds that it will undermine “conventional” marriages.
“That is one more step towards the Democrats’ purpose of dismantling the normal household, silencing voices of religion and completely undoing our nation’s God-woven basis. I hope and pray that my colleagues will discover the braveness to hitch me in opposing this misguided and harmful invoice,” Hartzler stated in a speech on the Home ground, showing to interrupt into tears.
The Respect for Marriage Act handed in a 258-169 vote, with 39 Republicans in help. The measure handed the Senate final month by an analogous bipartisan margin of 61-36. Republicans who backed the invoice stated they had been assured by extra protections for non secular liberty that had been added to the Senate model. The invoice now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The invoice repeals the Protection of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal legislation that banned same-sex marriage, and it requires states to acknowledge legitimate same-sex marriages from different states. It additionally ensures the identical protections for interracial marriages.
Democrats superior the measure after the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this summer time, destroying a 50-year precedent that assured a federal proper to an abortion. Justice Clarence Thomas raised alarms after he argued the courtroom ought to subsequent set its sights on different precedents, just like the one establishing a proper to marriage equality.
Public help for same-sex marriage hit a file excessive earlier this 12 months and its approval is prone to proceed trending upward, in keeping with a Gallup survey carried out in June. The ballot additionally discovered that a small majority of Republicans backed same-sex marriage.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), one of many major sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act and the primary overtly bisexual member of the Senate, celebrated Thursday’s vote in a put up on Twitter.
“Being homosexual is regular. Homosexual buddies, homosexual relations, and homosexual marriages are regular,” Sinema tweeted. “Our Respect for Marriage Act now heads to the President’s desk — guaranteeing same-sex married couples get pleasure from the identical protections as all different married couples. It’s a fantastic day in America.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who presided over the Home ground as Hartzler spoke, steered opponents of same-sex marriage had misplaced the argument.
“For too lengthy, Republicans have tried to cease a full imaginative and prescient of marriage equality in America. Their time has expired,” he wrote on Twitter.
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