Same-sex marriage legislation clears key Senate hurdle - The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation to support same-sex and interracial marriages crossed a large Senate hurdle Wednesday, putting Congress connected way to instrumentality the historical measurement of ensuring that specified unions are enshrined successful national law.

Twelve Republicans voted with each Democrats to determination guardant connected the legislation, meaning a last ballot could travel arsenic soon arsenic this week, oregon aboriginal this month. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the measure ensuring the unions are legally recognized nether the instrumentality is accidental for the Senate to “live up to its highest ideals” and support matrimony equality for each people.

“It volition marque our state a better, fairer spot to live,” Schumer said, noting that his ain girl and her woman are expecting a babe adjacent year.

Senate Democrats are rapidly moving to walk the measure portion the enactment inactive controls the House. Republicans won the House majority Wednesday and are improbable to instrumentality up the contented adjacent year.

In a connection aft the vote, President Joe Biden said that helium motion the measure erstwhile it is passed.

“Love is love, and Americans should person the close to wed the idiosyncratic they love,” Biden said.

The measure has gained dependable momentum since the Supreme Court’s June determination that overturned Roe v. Wade and the national close to an abortion. An sentiment astatine that clip from Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that an earlier precocious tribunal determination protecting same-sex marriage could besides travel nether threat.

The authorities would repeal the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act and necessitate states to admit each marriages that were ineligible wherever they were performed. The caller Respect for Marriage Act would besides support interracial marriages by requiring states to admit ineligible marriages careless of “sex, race, ethnicity, oregon nationalist origin.”

Congress has been moving to support same-sex matrimony arsenic enactment from the wide nationalist — and from Republicans successful peculiar — has sharply grown successful caller years, arsenic the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges determination legalized cheery matrimony nationwide. Recent polling has recovered much than two-thirds of the nationalist supports same-sex unions.

Still, galore Republicans successful Congress person been reluctant to enactment the legislation, with galore saying it was unnecessary portion the marriages are inactive protected by the courts. Democrats delayed consideration until aft the midterm elections, hoping that would relieve governmental unit connected immoderate GOP senators who mightiness beryllium wavering.

A projected amendment to the bill, negotiated by supporters to bring much Republicans connected board, would clarify that it does not impact rights of backstage individuals oregon businesses that are already enshrined successful law. Another tweak would marque wide that a matrimony is betwixt 2 people, an effort to ward disconnected immoderate far-right disapproval that the authorities could endorse polygamy.

Three Republicans said aboriginal connected that they would enactment the authorities and person lobbied their GOP colleagues to enactment it: Maine Sen. Susan Collins, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman. They argued that determination was inactive worth successful enshrining the rights for specified marriages adjacent if the courts don’t invalidate them.

“Current national instrumentality doesn’t bespeak the volition oregon beliefs of the American people,” Portman said up of the vote. “It’s clip for the Senate to settee the issue.”

In the end, 9 of their GOP colleagues joined them successful voting for it, bringing the full to 12 and providing capable votes needed to flooded a filibuster successful the 50-50 Senate. The different Republicans who voted for the authorities were Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Todd Young of Indiana, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Mitt Romney of Utah, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska.

The increasing GOP enactment for the contented is simply a crisp opposition from adjacent a decennary ago, erstwhile galore Republicans vocally opposed same-sex marriages. The authorities passed the House successful a July ballot with the enactment of 47 Republicans — a larger-than-expected fig that gave the measurement a boost successful the Senate.

On Tuesday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became the astir caller conservative-leaning radical to backmost the legislation. In a statement, the Utah-based religion said religion doctrine would proceed to see same-sex relationships to beryllium against God’s commandments, but it would enactment rights for same-sex couples arsenic agelong arsenic they didn’t infringe upon spiritual groups’ close to judge arsenic they choose.

Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who is the archetypal openly cheery legislator and has been moving connected cheery rights issues for astir 4 decades, said the newfound openness from galore Republicans connected the taxable reminds her “of the arc of the LBGTQ question to statesman with, successful the aboriginal days erstwhile radical weren’t retired and radical knew cheery radical by myths and stereotypes.”

Baldwin said that arsenic much individuals and families person go visible, hearts and minds person changed.

“And dilatory laws person followed,” she said. “It is history.”

Schumer said the contented is idiosyncratic to him, arsenic well.

“Passing the Respect for Marriage Act is arsenic idiosyncratic arsenic it gets for galore senators and their staffs, myself included,” Schumer said. “My girl and her woman are really expecting a small babe successful February. So it matters a batch to truthful galore of america to get this done.”

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Associated Press writer Sam Metz successful Salt Lake City contributed to this report.