Biden Signs Law Protecting Same-Sex Marriage: What You Need To Know

The bill protecting homosexual marriage was signed by US President Joe Biden on Tuesday, December 13.

The document, which was approved by Congress last week, calls for the official recognition of same-sex marriages.

• “This law and the love it stands for strike a blow against hate in all its forms,” Biden said on the White House’s South Lawn, in front of an audience of thousands. “That’s why this law is important to all Americans.”

First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her husband Doug Emhoff, as well as lawmakers from both parties, were present. Performers included Sam Smith and Cyndi Lauper.

• “For the first time, our families, mine and many of my friends – and people you know, sometimes your neighbors – can rest easy tonight because our families are validated (by law),” Lauper said ahead of the ceremony.

The purple tie Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate majority, wore to his daughter’s wedding was the same one he wore today. In the spring, his daughter’s first baby will be delivered by his wife.

• “Thanks to the dogged work of many of my colleagues, my grandson will live in a world that will respect and honor their mothers’ marriages,” Schumer said on the Senate floor in the morning.

In his statement, Biden blasted the “insensitive and cynical laws passed in states targeting transgender children, terrorizing families and criminalizing doctors who provide them with the care they need.”

• “Racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, they are all connected,” Biden said. “But the antidote to hate is love.”

Measures taken to avoid

The US Supreme Court made same-sex marriages legal nationwide in 2015. Since that time, same-sex unions are protected under the constitution.

Nevertheless, the Court’s ministers now have a far more conservative background, and deputies worry that this may cause the 2015 ruling to be overturned.

The court has already proven that it is willing to reject its own precedents, as evidenced by the decision it made in June to overturn a significant 1973 decision that made abortion legal in the United States.

Same-sex marriage law in United States

The result in the House was 258 to 169. 39 Republicans joined the 39 Democrats in the House who voted in favor of the bill. 169 Republicans opposed the democrats.

It was already approved by the Senate last month under the name Respect of Marriage Act (the Democratic Party dominates the Senate).

Despite continued opposition from many American religious conservatives who believe that gay marriage is against biblical teaching, the measure has earned support from LGBTQIA+ movements and even from religious organizations and bodies (such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).

Now that this rule is in effect, same-sex marriages must be recognized by both the federal government and the states, provided that they are legitimate in the jurisdictions where the wedding was held. The legislation also allows for religious organizations and groups who oppose such unions.

The bill nullifies the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which among other things barred same-sex couples from receiving federal benefits. It forbids States from disqualifying marriages that are performed outside of their borders on the grounds of sex, race, or ethnicity. The Supreme Court ruled that the prohibition on interracial marriages was unconstitutional in 1967.

The laws’ exclusions

The Supreme Court may provide states the authority to prohibit same-sex (or interracial) marriages, thus this legislation does not prevent states from doing so. In addition, the language states that religious organizations cannot be forced to offer goods or services for any marriage and shields them from losing their tax-exempt status or other advantages if they reject same-sex marriages.

Video credit: CBS News YouTube channel