Put it in the history books. Today President Joe Biden signed his name to the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation that enshrines federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages into law.
The bill was passed by the Democratic-held Senate in late November, and given final House approval one week ago. It repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a law that obliged the federal government to define marriage as between a man and woman.
The new law is intended as a response to Republican attacks on marriage rights and to recent hard-right Supreme Court decisions, including the overturning of federal abortion rights, laced with language suggesting other privacy-based protections might soon fall. The Biden-signed law does not oblige states to recognize same-sex marriages, but does require the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages in federal health, labor, immigration, military, and Social Security regulations. Many of those protections existed due only to presidential executive orders; now, they are the law of the land.
The White House ceremony, which hosted hundreds, concluded with the playing of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
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The bill was passed by the Democratic-held Senate in late November, and given final House approval one week ago. It repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a law that obliged the federal government to define marriage as between a man and woman.
The new law is intended as a response to Republican attacks on marriage rights and to recent hard-right Supreme Court decisions, including the overturning of federal abortion rights, laced with language suggesting other privacy-based protections might soon fall. The Biden-signed law does not oblige states to recognize same-sex marriages, but does require the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages in federal health, labor, immigration, military, and Social Security regulations. Many of those protections existed due only to presidential executive orders; now, they are the law of the land.
The White House ceremony, which hosted hundreds, concluded with the playing of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
RELATED STORIES:
Senate pronounces all marriages equal in passing Respect for Marriage Act
House passes marriage equality law, protecting it from the radical Trump-packed Supreme Court