BREAKING NEWS – Senate takes step to protect same-sex and interracial marriage: 12 Republicans including Mitt Romney and Roy Blunt vote with all Democrats to advance bill
The Senate on Wednesday passed a procedural hurdle to end debate on the Respect for Marriage Act, a House-passed bill that would enshrine same-sex marriage rights into law.
The bill broke a Senate filibuster with 62 lawmakers voting ‘yes,’ including 12 Republicans.
The bill will now go to a final vote which will likely occur after Thanksgiving, before the revised version goes back to the House for a final vote and the bill heads to President Biden’s desk.
Democrats had promised to push through the gay marriage bill while they still control both chambers. They had warned that gay marriage and even interracial marriage rights could be at risk after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, announced he would support the bill after his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lent its support for the bill if it includes an amendment to strengthen religious liberties
Their warnings came after Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in an opinion that privacy rights such as gay marriage and contraception could be ‘revisited’ after the legal ruling establishing a right to an abortion was overturned.
In a vote over the summer, 47 House Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the bill. Others who oppose the bill have deemed it little more than political messaging since gay marriage was legalized in the Obergefell case in 2012.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, announced he would support the bill after his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, lent its support for the bill if it includes an amendment to strengthen religious liberties.
In its endorsement the church underscored it would still consider same-sex unions to be against God’s commandments but would support legal rights for same-sex couples as long as they didn’t infringe on religious groups’ rights.
‘While I believe in traditional marriage, Obergefell is and has been the law of the land upon which LBGTQ individuals have relied. This legislation provides certainty to many LGBTQ Americans,’ Romney said in a statement on the bill.
Other Republicans who voted yes on the bill included Roy Blunt, Mo., Richard Burr, N.C., Thom Tillis, N.C., Shelley Capito, W. Va., Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Susan Collins, Maine, Joni Ernst, Iowa, Dan Sullivan, Alaska, and Rob Portman, Ohio.
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