Loving Freely
December 22, 2022
On Dec. 13, President Joe Biden signed a bill protecting same sex marriage and interacial marriage. The bill is called the Respect for Marriage Act and a speech was given at the South Lawn of the White House. President Biden has always standed with the LGBTQ community before and during his presidential residency.
“For most of our nation’s history, we denied interracial couples and same sex couples from these protections. It failed to treat them with equal dignity and respect. And now, this law requires an interracial marriage and same-sex marriage must be recognized as legal in every state in the nation,” President Biden said.
President Biden invited many LGBTQ+ activist to the signing like, Judy Kasen-Windsor, Cyndi Lauper, Mathew Haynes, James Slaugh, Micheal Anderson and plaintiffs from the case Obergefell vs. Hodges. Before President Biden signed the bill Cyndi Lauper and Sam Smith performed “Stay With Me”. After he signed the bill “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga supposedly played.
When President Biden was a Sentor in 1996, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, that wavered on letting gay men and lesbians serve in the military. The Respect for Marriage Act passed with bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress after months of negotiation, particularly over provisions related to religion. The House voted last week 258-169 to send the bill to Biden’s desk after the Senate passed it 61-36. A minority of Republicans joined Democrats in both votes.
“This is about respect. This is about taking pride. And it’s about time that we do so at the federal level,” Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, said.
Plus, with the recent overturning of Roe V. Wade, people feared that other laws were going to be overturned as well, like the right to own contraceptives. Even though Roe V. Wade was overturned it left it for the states to decide if they would consider it legal or illegal to recieve or give an abortion.
