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The Respect for Marriage Act

Posted by Matt Birchler
β€” 1 min read

From the press release announcing the proposed act:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI), Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) today announced the introduction of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), enshrine marriage equality for the purposes of federal law, and provide additional legal protections for marriage equality.

It goes without saying that I think this should be come a law with haste. As the Supreme Court seems to want to go on a tear stripping people of rights they have come to expect, laws like this are essential.

It makes absolutely no sense for something as fundamental as you marital status to vary from state to state, and codifying this into law at the national level must happen for the basic respect owed to all marriages. To put it plainly, Republicans were too bigoted to agree with this last decade, and despite 71% of Americans today believing that gay marriage should be legal, how much would you want to bet that the 29% turns this isn't a culture war once again, and red states reverse course on this basic right?

Make it a federal law and don't let Republican states strip people of their right to love and marry who they want.