President Biden on Tuesday signed legislation to safeguard marriage equality after Congress, for the first time in history, approved federal protections for same-sex marriage.
The Respect for Marriage Act passed the House on Thursday in a 258-169-1 vote, with 39 Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting the measure. The Senate cleared the measure last week in a 61-38 vote; 12 GOP senators joined on to the bill once it included an amendment outlining some protections for religious beliefs.
Biden has championed the legislation, with the White House describing the Respect for Marriage Act as “personal” to him. He celebrated the House passing it on Thursday, saying he will “promptly and proudly” sign the measure.
Same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
But the debate over gay marriage was resurrected this summer when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion for that ruling, he called on the court to also reconsider the precedent for Obergefell v. Hodges.
The new law enshrines federal protections for same-sex couples, requiring that the federal government and all states recognize marriages if the pair was wed in a state where the union was legal. It also cements protections for interracial couples.
And it repeals of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which recognized marriage as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”
Additionally, it includes an amendment outlining protections for religious liberties, which was a late addition central to securing enough Republican support for passage in the Senate.
Biden was at odds on the issue with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposed the measure, arguing it doesn’t include enough leeway for religious organizations. The fight between Biden and the bishops was reminiscent of some bishops’ attempts last year to try to deny him communion over his stance on abortion rights.
Other religious institutions, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, supported the religious freedom protections in the bill.
