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On the Home flooring on Thursday, a parade of Democrats — a few of them homosexual, a lot of talking about their very own same-sex marriages — stood to make the case for the measure. It repeals the 1996 Protection of Marriage Act, which outlined marriage as between a person and a girl and allowed states to refuse to honor same-sex marriages carried out in different states. As soon as signed into regulation, the Respect for Marriage Act will prohibit states from denying the validity of an out-of-state marriage primarily based on intercourse, race or ethnicity.
“Immediately, we’ll vote for equality and towards discrimination by lastly overturning the homophobic Protection of Marriage Act and guaranteeing essential protections for same-sex and interracial marriages,” Consultant David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island, stated on Thursday within the moments earlier than it handed.
Later, at a ceremony to rejoice and formally transmit the laws to Mr. Biden, Ms. Pelosi, whose speakership ends at first of January, stated that signing the invoice was a becoming capstone to her tenure within the publish, which started in 2010 along with her signing laws to permit the repeal of the “don’t ask don’t inform” coverage towards homosexual and bisexual individuals serving overtly within the army.
Former Consultant Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and one of many first overtly homosexual members of Congress, was available to rejoice what he described the demise of one more ignominious piece of coverage, referring to the Protection of Marriage Act by its initials.
“I used to be right here for the delivery of DOMA, so I’m very grateful to have the ability to be right here for the funeral,” Mr. Frank stated. “And it’s form of a New Orleans second; we’re tooting our horns for the funeral — a a lot happier event than the delivery.”
Nonetheless, regardless of the bipartisan nature of the vote, nearly all of Republicans remained vocally opposed. Throughout debate on Thursday, they argued that the measure was a response to a nonexistent menace to same-sex marriage rights, and condemned it as a part of a plot by Democrats to upend conventional values, to the detriment of the nation.
Consultant Jim Jordan of Ohio, the highest Republican on the Judiciary Committee, stated Democrats had “conjured up” an “unfounded concern” that the Supreme Court docket was getting ready to nullifying same-sex marriage rights and different precedents, and stated the measure nonetheless lacked adequate protections for organizations that don’t contemplate such unions legitimate.
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