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US Senate votes to protect same-sex marriage

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Agence France-Presse

<p>WASHINGTON, United States - The US Senate passed a landmark bill Tuesday protecting same-sex marriage, as lawmakers from both parties moved to forestall the possibility of the conservative-led Supreme Court taking away this right as it did with abortion.</p><p>&quot;With today&#x27;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,&quot; President Joe Biden said in a statement released after the 61-36 vote.</p><p>The Senate vote sends the bill back to the House of Representatives, which is expected to move swiftly to approve it and send it for Biden&#x27;s signature.</p><p>Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer hailed a &quot;momentous step forward for greater justice for LGBTQ Americans.&quot;</p><p>Eleven Republicans joined Democrats to pass the legislation on what had for decades been a deeply divisive issue in America.</p><p>In the United States, same-sex unions have been guaranteed by the Supreme Court since 2015. But after the court&#x27;s historic overturning of a longstanding ruling protecting the right to abortion in June, many progressives feared that same-sex marriage may also be under threat. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/11/22/22/remulla-ph-not-ready-for-same-sex-marriage-sogie">Remulla says PH ‘not ready’ for same-sex marriage, SOGIE</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/11/01/22/tokyo-starts-recognizing-same-sex-relationships">Tokyo starts recognizing same-sex relationships</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/12/08/21/same-sex-marriage-now-legal-in-30-countries">Same-sex marriage now legal in 30 countries</a></li></ul><p>Democrats have worked with urgency to get the bill passed while they still control Congress. </p><p>They held on to the Senate in this month&#x27;s mid-term elections but lost the House to the Republicans, although the latter eked out a much thinner majority than they had expected. So when the new Congress takes power in January, gridlock is expected.</p><p>The bill passed Tuesday does not require states to legalize same-sex marriage. </p><p>But it repeals previous legislation defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and does require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.</p><p>So if the Supreme Court were to overturn the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriages, a state that bans them will still have to recognize such unions carried out in other states. The bill also applies to inter-racial marriages.</p><p>&quot;Today’s vote is deeply personal for many of us in this chamber,&quot; said Schumer, who wore the same tie he had on at his lesbian daughter&#x27;s wedding.</p><p>A similar bill was already passed in June by the House of Representatives. All the chamber&#x27;s Democrats voted in favor, along with 47 Republicans. </p><p>The new vote in the House is needed to reconcile the two bills but this is seen as a formality.</p><p>The powerful American Civil Liberties Union hailed the &quot;historic step forward&quot; but denounced the rise of laws attacking the right of transgender people in several states. </p><p>&quot;While we welcome the historic vote on this measure, members of Congress must also fight like trans lives depend on their efforts because trans lives do,&quot; James Esseks, director of the ACLU&#x27;s LGBTQ &amp; HIV Rights Project, said in a statement.</p><p>Polls show a strong majority of Americans back same-sex marriage but it is still contentious. Thirty-six Republicans voted &#x27;no&#x27; on Tuesday and the religious right remains mostly opposed to such unions.</p><div><strong>cjc-st/jh</strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2074461" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

The US Senate passed a landmark bill Tuesday protecting same-sex marriage, as lawmakers from both parties moved to forestall the possibility of the conservative-led Supreme Court taking away this right.