Republican Utah Senator Mitt Romney stated that he still believes in “traditional marriage” after joining a handful of his GOP colleagues who voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act.
The bill will advance in the chamber after a 62-37 vote on Wednesday, after 12 Republican Senators, as well as all 50 Democrats, voted in favor of the bipartisan bill. The House already passed the act in July, but will need to cast a revote now that the Senate‘s bill includes amendments to protect religious institutions.
In a statement posted to his Twitter account, Romney said that he “heartily” supports the legislation, noting that it “provides important protections for religious liberty.”
“While I believe in traditional marriage, Obergefell is and has been the law of the land upon which LGBTQ individuals have relied,” Romney wrote. “This legislation provides certainty to many LGBTQ Americans, and it signals that Congress–and I–esteem and love all of our fellow Americans equally.”
If the Respect for Marriage bill is passed, it would repeal the Defense for Marriage Act signed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1996, which said that states are not required to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state. This means that same-sex couples are not guaranteed that their marriage benefits will be recognized or protected if they moved out of the state in which they received their marriage license.
The House bill that passed over the summer says that states will not be allowed to deny “any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State pertaining to a marriage” based on gender or race.
The Senate added an amendment to the legislation on Wednesday that says religious institutions will “not be required to provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges for the solemnization or celebration of a marriage.”
While same-sex marriage is legal under the U.S. Supreme Court‘s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, there has been intensified pressure to codify same-sex marriage protections since the high court struck down Roe v. Wade in late June.
President Joe Biden said in a statement Wednesday that the Senate’s bipartisan act “will ensure that LGBTQI+ couples and interracial couples are respected and protected equally under federal law, and provide more certainty to these families since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs.”
“I urge Congress to quickly send this bill to my desk where I will promptly sign it into law,” Biden added.
Romney’s vote split from his fellow Utah senator, Republican Mike Lee, who wrote on his personal Twitter account Tuesday evening ahead of the vote that the religious protections in the Respect for Marriage Act were “severely anemic.”
“No American should face legal threats for holding sincere religious beliefs or convictions,” Lee wrote. “The bill before the Senate presents such a threat, and offers protections for religious freedom that can only be described as severely anemic.”
Roger Severino is right: No American should face legal threats for holding sincere religious beliefs or convictions. The bill before the Senate presents such a threat, and offers protections for religious freedom that can only be described as severely anemic. https://t.co/swlVONcKIZ
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) November 16, 2022
Other Republicans also offered explanation for why they voted against the bill, including Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who said, “The Respect for Marriage Act is unnecessary as the Obergefell decision is settled law and has no chance of being overturned,” according to a tweet from NBC News reporter Sahil Kapur.
Newsweek has reached out to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for comment.
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